View source for Mount Bonnell

{{Short description|Hilltop and park in Austin, Texas}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name                           = Covert Park at Mount Bonnell
| nrhp_type                      = NRHP
| designated_other1              = Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
| designated_other1_number       = 6473
| designated_other1_num_position = bottom
| designated_other1_date         = 1969
| image                          = Mount Bonnell 2008.jpg
| image_size                     = 275px
| caption                        = View of [[Lake Austin]] from the summit of Mount Bonnell
| location                       = 3800 Mount Bonnell Rd<br>[[Austin, Texas]] 78731
| coordinates                    = {{coord|30|19|15|N|97|46|24|W|display=inline,title}}
| district_map       = {{maplink-road|from=Mount Bonnel.map}}
| area                           = {{convert|5.36|acre|abbr=on}}
| built                          = {{Start date|1939|6|2}}
| architect                      =
| architecture                   =
| added                          = September 17, 2015
| refnum                         = 15000619
}}
'''Mount Bonnell''' {{IPAc-en|b|ə|ˈ|n|ɛ|l}}, also known as '''Covert Park''', is a prominent point alongside the [[Lake Austin]] portion of the [[Colorado River (Texas)|Colorado River]] in [[Austin, Texas]]. It has been a popular tourist destination since the 1850s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Young|first=Kimberly|title=Adventure Guide to Texas|publisher=Hunter Publishing|year=1998| isbn=978-1-55650-812-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/adventureguideto0000youn_a7c7/page/14 14]|url=https://archive.org/details/adventureguideto0000youn_a7c7|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Gonzalez|first=Esther|title=Austin proves interesting site for date trip|publisher=[[Plainview Daily Herald]]|date=March 27, 2004|url=http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11194708&BRD=517&PAG=461&dept_id=473182&rfi=6|access-date=July 9, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608044849/http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11194708&BRD=517&PAG=461&dept_id=473182&rfi=6|archive-date=June 8, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> The mount provides a vista for viewing the city of Austin, Lake Austin, and the surrounding hills.<ref>{{cite journal |date=June 1979 |publisher=Emmis Communications |title=Austin: Outdoors |journal=[[Texas Monthly]] |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ly4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22}}</ref> It was designated a [[Recorded Texas Historic Landmark]] in 1969, bearing Marker number 6473,<ref name="Marker">{{cite web|title=Mount Bonnell|url=http://www.9key.com/markers/marker_detail.asp?atlas_number=5453006473&search_term=mormon|work=Recorded Texas Historic Landmark|publisher=William Nienke, Sam Morrow}}</ref> and was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 2015.

==Geography==
Mount Bonnell is often described as the highest point in Austin, with the elevation at its peak about {{convert|775|ft}} [[above mean sea level]] (AMSL).<ref name="Mount Bonnell">{{Handbook of Texas|id=rjm28|name=Mount Bonnell |author=Seldon B. Graham Jr. |date=July 20, 2015}}</ref> If Mount Bonnell ever held this distinction, it was only because the city limits did not include the next summit to the north, Mount Barker, which has an elevation of about {{convert|840|ft}} above mean sea level.<ref name="Mount Barker">{{Handbook of Texas|id=rjm27|name=Mount Barker |author=Seldon B. Graham Jr. |date=March 9, 2018}}</ref> City of Austin records, however, indicate that the city annexed for "full purpose jurisdiction" both Mt. Bonnell and Mt. Barker as part of the same parcel "on or before" 1951; Mt. Bonnell entered the city limits with its higher neighbor, Mt. Barker.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mount Bonnell: Highest Point in Austin?|url=https://traviscountyhistorical.blogspot.com/2021/10/mount-bonnell-highest-point-in-austin_16.html|access-date=October 17, 2021|website=Travis County Historical Commission blog |date=October 16, 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=History of annexation actions taken by the City of Austin|url=https://data.austintexas.gov/Locations-and-Maps/Annexation-History/amuv-wxzr|access-date=October 17, 2021|website=City of Austin official open data portal}}</ref> Many other areas now in the city of Austin are also higher than Mount Bonnell, but few publicly accessible spots offer such a sweeping view of the downtown area.

==History==

===Mount Bonnell's Indian Trail===
A historical marker was placed at Mount Bonnell in 1969 by State Historical Survey Committee.<ref>{{cite web |first=Richard |last=Denney |title=Mount Bonnell|url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=20136|publisher=The Historic Marker Database Organization|date=June 21, 2009}}</ref>  The marker reads:

{{Blockquote|Rising 775 feet above sea level, this limestone height was named for George W. Bonnell, who came to Texas with others to fight for Texas independence, 1836. Was commissioner of Indian affairs in Republic of Texas under President Sam Houston. Moved in 1839 to Austin; there published the "Texas Sentinel", 1840. Member Texan-Santa Fe expedition, 1841. Was captured but released in time to join Mier expedition, 1842. Was killed in camp on Rio Grande, Dec, 26, 1842. Frontiersman W.A.A. "Bigfoot" Wallace killed an Indian he met face to face while crossing a narrow ledge 50 feet above river, 1839. He also took refuge in a Mount Bonnell cave to recover from "flux", but was missing so long his sweetheart eloped. In the mid-1800s Mormons built a mill on the Colorado river at foot of Mount Bonnell. Mill was destroyed by flood and the Mormons moved on west. Mount Bonnell was site of picnics and outings in 1850s and 1860s. As it is today. Legend has it that an excursion to the place in the 1850s inspired the popular song "Wait for the Wagon and We'll All Take a Ride". As a stunt in 1898, Miss Hazel Keyes slid down a cable stretched from the top of Mount Bonnell to south bank of then Lake McDonald below.}}

Years after [[William A. A. Wallace|Bigfoot Wallace]]'s refuge in the cave on Mount Bonnell, when asked why he had chosen the cave as a refuge, he responded "Well the cave was right on the old Indian trail leading down to Austin ... and besides, the cave was in the best hunting ground for bear in all this country.."<ref>{{cite book|last=Wilbarger|first=J.W.|title=Indian Depredations in Texas|year=1889|publisher=Hutchings Print House|location=Austin, TX|page=665}}</ref>

=== Julia Lee Sinks ===
Julia L. Sinks, author and historian, was an early settler to Austin, arriving in the spring of 1840. Before meeting and marrying George Sinks, chief clerk of the Post Office Department during the Republic years, she lived on West Pecan, present day 6th street, and later wrote "Our home was on the beaten track of the Indians into town from the pass of Mount Bonnell. The knolls beyond the quarry branch were interspersed with timber, and sometimes though not often, we would see galloping past the open spaces beyond the blanketed Indian. The path along the quarry branch, secluded as it was, became their main inlet to the town. It was a sheltered road, never traveled at night by whites, so the Indians claimed right of way, and all full moons brought moccasin tracks in abundance".<ref>Kerr, Jeffrey, and Ray Spivey. The Republic of Austin. AUSTIN, TEXAS: WATERLOO, 2010. Kerr is quoting materials from the Julia Lee Sinks Papers, 1817, [ca. 1840]-1904, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.</ref>

=== Abduction of Simpson Children ===
If Mount Bonnell was on an Indian trail into Austin, it was also a trail out, as illustrated in another story included in Wilbarger's book, Indian Depredations of Texas. In 1842, a Mrs. Simpson living on that very same street as Julia Lee Sinks, West Pecan, about three blocks west of Congress, had two children – a daughter 14, a son 12—abducted by Indians while the children were in the adjacent "valley" (Shoal Creek). Wilbarger says that at that time there were no houses there. The Indians "seized the children, mounted their horses and made off for the mountains going in the direction of Mt. Bonnell". A posse was raised and gave pursuit. Wilbarger then says "At one time the citizens came within sight of the redskins just before reaching Mt. Bonnell, but the Indians, after arriving at the place, passed on just beyond to the top of the mountain, which being rocky, the citizens lost the trail and were never able to find where the savages went down the mountain".
The Simpson girl was killed, but the boy survived and was later "traded off to some Indian traders, who returned him to his mother". It is because the boy survived and was returned home that we know what happened after the posse lost the trail of the Indians on Mount Bonnell. From Mt. Bonnell they stopped at Spicewood Springs, "which is situated in the edge of the mountains". This is where the Simpson girl was killed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wilbarger|first=J.W.|title=Indian Depredations in Texas|year=1889|publisher=Hutchings Printing House|location=Austin, TX|page=139}}</ref> Spicewood Springs is located about 5 miles north of Mount Bonnell, at the present day intersections of Mopac Expressway and Spicewood Springs Road.

===Origin of the name===
Mount Bonnell is generally believed to have been named after early [[Texas]] newspaper publisher George W. Bonnell,<ref name="Mount Bonnell"/> who moved to Texas in 1836. George W. Bonnell was publisher of the local paper ''The Texas Sentinel'' and was prominent in early Texas and [[Travis County, Texas|Travis County]] (Austin) affairs after the [[Texas Revolution|War for Independence]].<ref name="George W Bonnell">{{Handbook of Texas|id=fbo17|name=George William Bonnell |author=L. W. Kemp |date=June 12, 2010}}</ref>  Though sources have long credited George Bonnell as the mountain's namesake, [[Albert Sidney Johnston]]<ref name="Albert Sidney Johnston">{{Handbook of Texas|id=fjo32|name=Albert Sidney Johnston |author=Jeanette H. Flachmeier |date=March 13, 2013}}</ref> may have named Mount Bonnell in present-day Austin for his friend and fellow West Point graduate [[Joseph Bonnell]],<ref name="George W Bonnell" /><ref name="Captain Joseph Bonnell ">{{Handbook of Texas|id=fboat|name=Joseph Bonnell |author=Seldon B. Graham Jr. |date=June 24, 2015}}</ref> who was a Captain in the Texas Army during the War for Independence.<ref>{{cite news|title=Mount Bonnell named for wrong Bonnell, West Point group says|first=Andrew |last=Weber|newspaper=[[Austin American-Statesman]]|location=Austin, Texas|date=September 25, 2011 |page=B1}}</ref> There is little contemporaneous evidence to support either derivation of the name.

Legend has it that Mount Bonnell was once called Antoinette's Leap, after a young woman who leaped to her death to avoid being captured by Native Americans who had killed her fiancé.<ref name="Mount Bonnell"/>

==Geology==
Mt. Bonnell forms part of the [[Balcones Fault]] [[Escarpment]] and these "balconies" were first described by Bernardo de Miranda in 1756.<ref>{{cite book|last=Spearing|first=Darwin|title=Roadside Geology of Texas|url=https://archive.org/details/roadsidegeologyo0000spea|url-access=registration|year=1991|publisher=Mountain Press Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-87842-265-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/roadsidegeologyo0000spea/page/63 63] }}</ref> The lower [[Cretaceous]] [[Glen Rose Formation]] [[limestone]] [[outcrop]]s to the west of the fault zone but is buried 1000 feet to the east.{{sfnp|Spearing|1991|p=64}}

A [[stratigraphic column]] starts with the [[Lower Cretaceous]] [[Trinity Group (geologic formation)|Trinity Group]] overlain by the [[Edwards Group]] and the [[Georgetown Formation]]. [[Upper Cretaceous]] [[formation (geology)|formations]] follow, starting with the [[Del Rio Clay]], [[Buda Limestone]], and then the [[Eagle Ford Group]]. Formations within the Trinity Group include the [[Hammett Formation]], Cow Creek Formation, [[Hensel Formation]], and Lower and Upper [[Glen Rose Formation]]. The Hammett and the lower portion of the Upper Glen Rose act as confining units (or [[aquitard]]) for the Middle Trinity [[Aquifer]]. The Upper Glen Rose contains the Upper Trinity Aquifer, which appears to have intra-aquifer [[groundwater]] flow with the Edwards Aquifer as water levels are at the same elevation. Formations within the Edwards Group include the Kainier Formation and the Person Formation. The Upper Cretaceous rock units confine the [[Edwards Aquifer]] within the group.<ref name=Mustafa>{{Cite journal|title=Geophysical mapping of Mount Bonnell fault of Balcones fault zone and its implications on Trinity-Edwards Aquifer interconnection, central Texas, USA|journal=The Leading Edge|publisher=[[Society of Exploration Geophysicists]]|volume=35|number=9|pages=752–758|doi=10.1190/tle35090752.1|date=September 2016|last=Saribudak|first=Mustafa|bibcode=2016LeaEd..35..752S |url=http://library.seg.org/doi/abs/10.1190/tle35090752.1|access-date=12 September 2016|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The Mount Bonnell fault has a vertical throw of up to 600 feet, making it the most prominent [[normal fault]] within the Balcones Fault Zone. During the [[Miocene]], the Edwards Group was displaced downwards relative to the Glen Rose Formation on the [[Edwards Plateau]], so that they are juxtaposed.<ref name=Mustafa/>

==Gallery==
<gallery class="center" widths="150px" heights="150px">
File:Mount_Bonnell_1889.jpg|Outcrop at Mount Bonnell ([[Robert T. Hill|Hill]], 1889) <ref>{{cite book|last=Hill|first=Robert T. |editor-last=Dumble |editor-first=E.T.|title=Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Texas|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iugbAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA105|edition=1889|year=1890|publisher=State Printing Office|location=Austin, Texas|page=134|chapter=A brief description of the Cretaceous rocks of Texas and their economic uses}}</ref>
File:Mount Bonnel Austin TX Poscard.jpg |1917 postcard depiction of view from Mount Bonnell
File:Mount bonnell.jpg|View from the summit
File:Mt-Bonnell-Rock.jpg|An engraved rock at the top of Mount Bonnell
File:Covert Marker on Mt Bonnell 2010.jpg|The engraved rock as it appears today
File:Mt-Bonnell_1860_rs.png|Texas Historical Marker at Mount Bonnell
File:Covert Park Marker at foot of Mt Bonnell.jpg|Covert Park Marker at foot of Mount Bonnell
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge]]
*[[Barton Creek]]
*[[Texas Hill Country]]
*[[National Register of Historic Places listings in Travis County, Texas]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://digital.lib.uh.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/p15195coll16&CISOBOX1=photographic+postcards Early 20th century photographic postcards of Texas places at the University of Houston Digital Library]
*[https://www.mountbonnell.com Mount Bonnell Local Community-Run Website]

{{Austin}}
{{National Register of Historic Places in Austin, Texas}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonnell, Mount}}
[[Category:Hills of Texas]]
[[Category:Texas Hill Country|Mount Bonnell]]
[[Category:Colorado River (Texas)|Mount Bonnell]]
[[Category:Geography of Austin, Texas]]
[[Category:History of Austin, Texas|Mount Bonnell]]
[[Category:Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks|Mount Bonnell]]
[[Category:City of Austin Historic Landmarks]]
[[Category:Landforms of Travis County, Texas]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Texas]]
[[Category:National Park Service rustic in Texas]]