Interesting Texas Town Names

Did you ever wonder how some town in Texas got their names? Towns like Round Rock, Bee Cave, Dripping Springs, Dime Box and Old Dime Box come to mind. Now I’m not an expert on town names in Texas, but I am the curious type and some things just intrigue me. One is how some of these places got their names. So I did a little bit of homework and the following is what I found.

Round Rock, which is a city on the northern edge of Austin, is pretty simple. In 1851, there was a settlement on the banks of Brushy Creek. In the middle of the creek near the settlement was a large round rock. The rock actually marked a crossing for horses, cattle and wagons and later the community was named Round Rock.

Bee Cave also has an interesting history. Since the 1800s, an area west of Austin with Barton Creek and Little Barton Creek running through it was known as Bee Caves. The name stuck because of bee hives nestled in little caves in several areas of the walls of the creeks. In the late 1800s, a gentleman named Beck opened a store in the area. He later opened a post office in the store and called it Bee Cave. Around a decade later in 1987, the area became incorporated as the Village of Bee Cave. Since then the name has been changed to the City of Bee Cave.

Dripping Springs makes as much sense as anything else. This town, which is around 30 minutes west of Austin, was named after natural springs dripping out of rock formations at the Milk House Branch of the Edward’s Aquifer. This used to be a gathering place for the Tonkawa Indians because of the source of water. It later became part of a transportation route between Fredericksburg and Austin. Both a landmark and a source of water, this area became the town of Dripping Springs. The springs are still there and are right in the center of town on West Mercer Street.

No Dime Box and Old Dime Box are pretty interesting. These towns are between Austin and College Station. There was a place in Dime Box named Brown’s Mill. This was the place area residents would leave a dime in a box to get a letter to the post office in Giddings. When the railroad built a line around 3 miles southeast of Dime Box and most of the residents picked up and moved to be closer to the new rail station. So Dime Box became Old Dime Box and the new town became Dime Box.

College Station? Think college, think railroad and station and you’ll have that one figured out pretty quickly.

I know that there are towns with interesting names across the country and I wonder at times about some of them. Hot Coffee, Mississippi and Hell, Michigan are a couple that come to mind. If you want to do the homework, you might find some interesting stories, just like I found in Texas.

Sam Chapman is an Austin REALTOR who has lived and worked in the Austin area since 1987. Sam enjoys helping people buy or sell Austin homes and and he enjoys volunteering in the community. Read Sam’s Austin Real Estate Blog.