The Hill Country
A little natural history by Robert Utley:
The Texas Hill Country, a scenic land of hills and valleys, heavily wooded with live-oak and cedar, was created by the rivers rising on the Edwards Plateau of West Texas and flowing southeast. They cut through the limestone ridges of the plateau and fall on the black-soil prairies of Gulf and southeast Texas.
The fall line is called the Balcones Escarpment. It originates south of Dallas-Fort Worth, extends southwest as far as San Antonio, then curves to the west to the neighborhood of Uvalde. The Balcones Escarpment is the eastern edge of the Hill Country and marks not only a geographical feature but a historic and cultural fault line. It is traced by I-35, which runs along its base as far as San Antonio.
West of the escarpment, the limestone base characterizes the Hill country. Georgetown, on I-35, is below the escarpment. East of Georgetown is black-soil agricultural land and no limestone base. West is the limestone base of the Hill Country. After the escarpment’s westward turn at San Antonio, it forms the southern boundary of the Hill Country. To the west, the Hill Country begins to recede west of Fredericksburg and Llano.
The Balcones is also a historic and cultural divide because west of it lies West Texas, with western frontier values and occupations. South of it, after the turn west at San Antonio, are the chaparral deserts sweeping down to the Rio Grande, the birthplace of the cattle empire.
East of the Balcones, before it turns west, is the black soil that attracted the first pioneers and historically was part of the Old South. Its values and economics still resemble the Old South. When the Texas Republic entered the Union as a state in 1845, it was given the option of dividing into five states if it so desired. That would have yielded ten rather than two senators, but it did not divide. Some have long held that society, economics, history, and politics would have been better served if Texas had divided into two states roughly along the Balcones Escarpment, creating a more cohesive East Texas and West Texas.
Georgetown and vicinity:
Georgetown (population 47,000) includes one of the state's "Best Historic Town Squares," where the Williamson County Courthouse serves as the centerpiece to the finest collection of late Victorian commercial architecture in the state. It was the first city in Texas to be named a "Great American Main Street City" in 1997, the highest honor bestowed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Today, three National Register Districts include more than 180 historic businesses and homes.
In 2008, Money Magazine ranked Georgetown number two in best places to live in America. Georgetown’s Convention and Visitor Bureau has city information and a photo gallery on its website at http://visit.georgetown.org/
Southwestern University, the oldest institution of higher education in Texas and one of the best liberal arts colleges in the nation, has a student-teacher ratio of 10:1 with an average class size of 14. http://southwestern.edu/about/glance.php
Lake Georgetown Park is a reservoir on the North San Gabriel River. Managed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, it provides hiking, biking, fishing, boating, swimming, and camping activities. http://www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/georgetown/
Austin, self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World, has a population of 758,000. It is the state capital of Texas, whose Capitol is one of the most beautiful and distinctive of the fifty states. During the current recession, it is the only city that is still growing jobs. It is home to the University of Texas and its Longhorn sports teams. http://www.austintexas.org/
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