Bastrop, Texas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bastrop, Texas
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Bastrop City Hall
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| Nicknames:
The Most Historic Small Town in Texas;
Heart of the Lost Pines |
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 Bastrop, Texas
Location in Texas
Bastrop, Texas
Location in the United States
Bastrop, Texas
Location in North America
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| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| County | Bastrop |
| Area | |
| • Total | 9.34 sq mi (24.20 km2) |
| • Land | 9.22 sq mi (23.89 km2) |
| • Water | 0.12 sq mi (0.31 km2) |
| Elevation | 367 ft (112 m) |
| Population
(2020)
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| • Total | 9,688 |
| • Density | 1,001.95/sq mi (386.87/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| ZIP code |
78602
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| Area codes | 512, 737 |
| FIPS code | 48-05864 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1330128 |
Bastrop (/ˈbæstrəp, -trɒp/) is a city and the county seat of Bastrop County, Texas, United States. The population was 9,688 according to the 2020 census. It is located about 30 mi (48 km) southeast of Austin and is part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area.
Contents
History
Spanish soldiers lived temporarily at the current site of Bastrop as early as 1804, when a fort was established where the Old San Antonio Road crossed the Colorado River and named Puesta del Colorado.
Bastrop's namesake, Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop, was a commoner named Philip Hendrik Nering Bogel, who was wanted for embezzlement in his native country of the Netherlands. In Texas, he assisted Moses and Stephen F. Austin in obtaining land grants in Texas and served as Austin's land commissioner. In 1827, Austin located about 100 families in an area adjacent to his earlier Mexican contracts. Austin arranged for Mexican officials to name a new town there after the baron who died the same year.
On June 8, 1832, the town was platted along conventional Mexican lines, with a square in the center and blocks set aside for public buildings. The town was named Bastrop, but two years later, the Coahuila y Tejas legislature renamed it Mina in honor of Francisco Javier Mina, a Mexican revolutionary hero and martyr. The town was incorporated under the laws of the Republic of Texas on December 18, 1837, and the name was changed back to Bastrop.
Overlooking the center of the town is the Lost Pines Forest. Composed of loblolly pines (Pinus taeda), the forest is the center of the westernmost stand of the southern pine forest. As the only timber available in the area, the forest contributed to the local economy. Bastrop began supplying Austin with lumber in 1839 and then San Antonio, the western Texas frontier, and parts of Mexico.
A fire in 1862 destroyed most of downtown Bastrop's commercial buildings and the county courthouse. As a result, most current downtown structures postdate the Civil War. In 1979, the National Register of Historic Places admitted 131 Bastrop buildings and sites to its listings. This earned Bastrop the title of the "Most Historic Small Town in Texas".
The first edition of the Bastrop Advertiser and County News (now The Bastrop Advertiser) was published on March 1, 1853, giving it claim to be the oldest continuously published weekly (semiweekly since September 5, 1977) in Texas. The wider Bastrop County is also covered by papers such as the Elgin Courier.
On September 4, 2011, two wildfires started when trees fell on power lines. The first fire started in the community of Circle D-KC Estates near Bastrop State Park, and the other fire started about 4 mi (6 km) north. The two fires merged into the Bastrop County Complex fire. This was the worst and most destructive wildfire in Texas history, as it destroyed 1,691 homes, killed two people, and caused $325 million of insured property damage. The drought in Texas at the time combined with strong winds from the Gulf of Mexico caused by Tropical Storm Lee helped fuel the fire.
Geography
Bastrop is located near the center of Bastrop County along the lower Colorado River. The downtown business district of the city is located on a bluff on the east bank of the river, but the city extends to the west side of the river, as well. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.1 square miles (23.6 km2), of which 9.0 sq mi (23.3 km2) are land and 0.12 square miles (0.3 km2), or 1.23%, is covered by water.
Three miles (5 km) northeast of the town, Lake Bastrop is a 906-acre (3.67 km2) reservoir on Spicer Creek operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) since its impounding in 1964. Although primarily used as a cooling pond for the Sim Gideon Power Plant, the lake is also used for recreation, and the LCRA maintains two public parks on the lake.
Climate
Bastrop tends to be cooler than other central Texas cities, but can reach 100 °F in the summer. Extreme temperatures range from –1 to 111 °F.
| Climate data for Bastrop, Texas | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 88 (31) |
96 (36) |
98 (37) |
102 (39) |
103 (39) |
106 (41) |
111 (44) |
110 (43) |
111 (44) |
105 (41) |
94 (34) |
91 (33) |
111 (44) |
| Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 63 (17) |
66 (19) |
73 (23) |
80 (27) |
87 (31) |
92 (33) |
95 (35) |
97 (36) |
91 (33) |
83 (28) |
73 (23) |
64 (18) |
83 (28) |
| Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 38 (3) |
41 (5) |
48 (9) |
56 (13) |
64 (18) |
70 (21) |
72 (22) |
72 (22) |
66 (19) |
56 (13) |
47 (8) |
39 (4) |
56 (13) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −1 (−18) |
6 (−14) |
17 (−8) |
25 (−4) |
38 (3) |
50 (10) |
52 (11) |
50 (10) |
43 (6) |
27 (−3) |
20 (−7) |
3 (−16) |
−1 (−18) |
| Average precipitation inches (mm) | 2.56 (65) |
2.54 (65) |
2.85 (72) |
2.65 (67) |
4.50 (114) |
3.66 (93) |
2.23 (57) |
2.19 (56) |
3.69 (94) |
4.82 (122) |
3.30 (84) |
2.72 (69) |
37.71 (958) |
| Source: weather.com | |||||||||||||
Demographics
| Historical population | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1860 | 1,107 | — | |
| 1870 | 1,199 | 8.3% | |
| 1880 | 1,546 | 28.9% | |
| 1890 | 1,634 | 5.7% | |
| 1900 | 2,145 | 31.3% | |
| 1910 | 1,707 | −20.4% | |
| 1920 | 1,828 | 7.1% | |
| 1930 | 1,895 | 3.7% | |
| 1940 | 1,976 | 4.3% | |
| 1950 | 3,176 | 60.7% | |
| 1960 | 3,001 | −5.5% | |
| 1970 | 3,112 | 3.7% | |
| 1980 | 3,789 | 21.8% | |
| 1990 | 4,044 | 6.7% | |
| 2000 | 5,340 | 32.0% | |
| 2010 | 7,218 | 35.2% | |
| 2020 | 9,688 | 34.2% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census | |||
2020 census
| Race | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| White (NH) | 5,581 | 57.61% |
| Black or African American (NH) | 965 | 9.96% |
| Native American or Alaska Native (NH) | 35 | 0.36% |
| Asian (NH) | 228 | 2.35% |
| Pacific Islander (NH) | 15 | 0.15% |
| Some Other Race (NH) | 60 | 0.62% |
| Mixed/Multi-Racial (NH) | 392 | 4.05% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 2,412 | 24.9% |
| Total | 9,688 |
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 9,688 people, 3,188 households, and 2,022 families residing in the city.
Economy
As of 2020, the area's four largest employers are the Bastrop Independent School District, Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa, Bastrop County government, and MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa (situated about 15 mi west of the City of Bastrop on 405 acres), opened on June 2, 2006, with 491 rooms and gave a boost to employment and sales tax in the area. When the property changed ownership in 2011, officials stated it employed 600 individuals plus 175 additional seasonal employees – making it the largest private employer in Bastrop County.
SpaceX has begun constructing a half-million-square-foot building on a rural property in Bastrop. Across the street, another Elon Musk-owned business venture, The Boring Company, has established its headquarters and tests new machines.
Education
The Bastrop Independent School District serves Bastrop. Some residents are zoned to Mina Elementary School, while others are zoned to Emile Elementary School. All residents are zoned to Bastrop Intermediate School, Bastrop Middle School, and Bastrop High School.
Austin Community College conducts night and continuing-education classes at Bastrop High School.
From 1893 until 1969, Emile High School served as the segregated black high school.
Notable people
- Carolyn Banks, fiction writer
- Trent Brown, offensive tackle in the NFL for the New England Patriots
- John Wheeler Bunton, Texas pioneer and signatory of the Texas Declaration of Independence
- Geoff Connor, former Texas Secretary of State, American public servant, attorney, historian, and businessman
- Greenleaf Fisk (1807–1888), a legislator in the Republic of Texas and Bastrop County chief justice, he later moved to Brown County and became known as the "Father of Brownwood."
- Louis Edwin Fry Sr. (1903–2000), Architect and professor; former chair of the department of architecture at Howard University
- Ryan Holiday, author and owner of The Painted Porch bookstore
- Zachary Levi, actor
- Richard Linklater, director and writer
- Michael Moorcock, science fiction/fantasy writer
- Thomas R. Phillips, former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice
- Rodney Reed, Texas death row inmate
- Billy Waugh, former American Special Forces sergeant major and CIA paramilitary operations officer
- Lovie Yancey, founder of international burger chain Fatburger
Film industry
Several movies were at least partially filmed in Bastrop, including Lovin' Molly (1974), the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Home Fries (1998), Courage Under Fire (1996), and the 2004 remake of The Alamo. Other projects include All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006) and Fireflies in the Garden (2008), starring Willem Dafoe and Julia Roberts.
The remake of Friday the 13th was also partially filmed in Bastrop. Filmed in and near Bastrop were The Life of David Gale with Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet, Michael 1996 with John Travolta, Andie MacDowell and William Hurt, Hope Floats 1998 With Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick Jr., True Women 1998 (TV movie) with Angelina Jolie, Dana Delany, and Michael York, The Tree of Life 2010 with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, and Bernie 2010 with Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey.
Also partially filmed near Bastrop on the Buck Steiner Ranch was A Perfect World with Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, and Laura Dern. In late 2012 and early 2013, the film Joe Ransom starring Nicolas Cage was partially filmed in Bastrop at the Lost Pines Boy Scout Park. Prince Avalanche (2013) starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch was shot in Bastrop after the Bastrop County Complex fire. Boyhood (2014) starring Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke was shot in the Lost Pines of Bastrop.
See also
In Spanish: Bastrop (Texas) para niños
