« Texas
 | Attractions | | Hotels | | Map | | Austin; good to know | |
 | | | |  |
Popular tourist attractions include Downtown Austin/6th Street, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Lake Travis, Zilker Botanical Garden, Texas Capitol and Barton Springs Pool. Austin is the state capital of Texas and the county seat of Travis County. Situated in the region of Central Texas, it ... more »
Save time & money with Hotels
View all hotels in Austin...
Hotels 
Attractions 
Neighborhood 
Airports Popular tourist attractions include Downtown Austin/6th Street, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Lake Travis, Zilker Botanical Garden, Texas Capitol and Barton Springs Pool.
Austin is the state capital of Texas and the county seat of Travis County. Situated in the region of Central Texas, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 16th-largest in the United States (population 690,252). The city is the core cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock metropolitan area with a population of 1.4 million.
The first documented settlement of current day Austin occurred in 1835 and the site was named Waterloo in 1837. In 1839, Mirabeau B. Lamar renamed the city in honor of Stephen F. Austin. Its original name is honored by local businesses such as Waterloo Ice House and Waterloo Records. Austin is situated on the Colorado River and on the Balcones Fault, which in much of Austin runs roughly the same route as the MoPac expressway.
Residents of Austin are known as Austinites and include a mix of university professors, students, politicians, lobbyists, state employees and high-tech workers. The city is home to enough large sites of major technology corporations to have earned the nickname, "Silicon Hills". Austin's official slogan is The Live Music Capital of the World and many try to follow one of its unofficial mottos of "Keep Austin Weird".
Austin is situated on the Colorado River, with three man-made (artificial) lakes wholly within the city limits: Town Lake, Lake Austin, and Lake Walter E. Long. Additionally, the foot of Lake Travis, including Mansfield Dam, is located within the city's limits. Town Lake, Lake Austin, and Lake Travis are all on the Colorado River. The city is also situated on the Balcones Fault, which, in much of Austin, runs roughly the same route as the MoPac Expressway. The eastern part of the city is flat, whereas the western part and western suburbs consist of scenic rolling hills on the edge of the Texas Hill Country. Because the hills to the west are primarily limestone rock with a thin covering of topsoil, the city is subjected to frequent flash flooding from the excessive runoff caused by thunderstorms. To help control this runoff and to generate hydroelectric power, the Lower Colorado River Authority operates a series of dams that form the Texas Highland Lakes. The lakes also provide venues for boating, swimming, and other forms of recreation within several parks located on the lake shores.
A popular point of prominence in Austin is Mount Bonnell. The highest point in Austin proper at about 780 feet above sea level, it is a natural limestone formation overlooking Lake Austin on the Colorado River, approximately 200 feet below its summit.
The soils of Austin range from shallow gravelly clay loams over limestone in the western outskirts to deep fine sandy loams, silty clay loams, silty clays or clays in the city's eastern part. Some of the clays have pronounced shrink-swell properties and are difficult to work under most moisture conditions. Many of Austin's soils, especially the clay-rich types, are slightly to moderately alkaline and have free calcium carbonate.
For several hundred years before the arrival of European settlers, the area around present-day Austin was inhabited by a mixture of Tonkawa, Comanche, and Lipan Apache Indians, who fished and hunted along the creeks, including present-day Barton Springs.
The first documented permanent settlement of current day Austin occurred in 1835. Anglo American settlers began arriving in the area, when Texas was still part of Mexico. They founded the village of Waterloo in 1837, along the banks of the Colorado River. According to local folklore, Stephen F. Austin, the "father of Texas", negotiated a peace treaty with the local Indians at the site of the present day Treaty Oak after several settlers were killed in raids. According to local legend, Austin also negotiated a boundary treaty with the Indians that laid out the fledgling town's limits.
Renaming the City
Waterloo was chosen to become the capital of the new Republic of Texas in 1839 and was purchased by The Republic for that purpose. Mirabeau B. Lamar renamed the city in honor of Stephen F. Austin. The city's original name is honored by local businesses such as Waterloo Ice House and Waterloo Records.
Great Storm
In 1900, a great storm caused Colorado river waters to crest 11 feet above the granite and limestone dam, washing sections of the dam 60 feet downstream, sending a wall of water into Downtown Austin, leveling homes and killing 47 persons. Two more failed attempts would be made to rebuild the dam until Tom Miller Dam was completed slightly up river in the 1940s.
Country and Western
In the 1970s, Austin became a refuge for a group of Country and Western musicians and songwriters seeking to escape the music industry's corporate domination of Nashville. The best-known artist in this group was Willie Nelson, who became an icon for what became the city's "alternate music industry." The Armadillo World Headquarters gained a national reputation during the 1970s as a venue for these anti-establishment musicians as well as mainstream acts. In the following years, Austin gained a reputation as a place where struggling musicians could launch their careers in informal live venues in front of receptive audiences. This ultimately led to the city's motto, "Live music capital of the world."
Technology Industry
In the 1990s, the boom resumed with the influx and growth of a large technology industry. Initially the technology industry was centered around larger, established companies such as IBM, but in the late 1990s, Austin gained the additional reputation of being a center of the dot-com boom and subsequent dot-com bust. Austin is also known for game development, filmmaking, and popular music.
Presidential Election
In 2000, Austin became the center of an intense media focus as the headquarters of presidential candidate and Texas Governor George W. Bush. Interestingly, the headquarters of his main opponent, Al Gore, were in Nashville, thus re-creating the old country music rivalry between the two cities.
Cultural Loss
As Austin became known as a location for creative individuals, corporate retail branches also moved into town and displaced many 'home-grown' businesses. To many long-time Austinites, this loss of landmark retail establishments has left a void in the city's culture. In response, "Keep Austin Weird" became a popular rallying cry and many Austinites have reacted with renewed support of local businesses.
Austin's official slogan is The Live Music Capital of the World. Austin has a vibrant live music scene boasting more music venues per capita than any other U.S. city. Austin's music revolves around the many nightclubs on 6th Street and an annual film/music/multimedia festival known as South by Southwest. The longest-running concert music program on American television, Austin City Limits, is videotaped on the University of Texas at Austin campus. Austin City Limits and Capital Sports & Entertainment run the Austin City Limits Music Festival, an annual music and art festival held at Zilker Park in Austin. Other annual events include Eeyore's Birthday Party in April and Carnaval in February.
Eccentric and Diverse
Austinites take great pride in being eccentric and celebrate the differences between themselves and other U.S. cities. "Keep Austin Weird" has become a local motto in recent years, featured on innumerable bumper stickers and t-shirts. This motto has not only been used in promoting Austin's eccentricity and diversity, but is also meant to bolster support of local and independent businesses.
Famous People
Nationally known Austinites include Willie Nelson, Lance Armstrong, and Michael Dell. Other well known Austinites can be found in the List of Austinites.
Movies
Austin has been the location for a number of motion pictures, partly due to the influence of The University of Texas at Austin's outstanding Department of Radio-Television-Film. Films produced in Austin include Man of the House, Secondhand Lions, Waking Life, Spy Kids, Dazed and Confused, Office Space, The Life of David Gale, Miss Congeniality, Doubting Thomas and Slacker. In order to draw future film projects to the area, the Austin Film Society has converted several airplane hangars from the former Mueller Airport into the filmmaking center, Austin Studios. Projects that have used facilities at Austin Studios include music videos by The Flaming Lips, and feature films such as 25th Hour and Sin City. Austin also hosted the MTV series, The Real World: Austin in 2005.
Film and Music Festivals
Austin hosts the annual Austin Film Festival, as well as South by Southwest, which draw films of many different types from all over the world. In 2004 the city was first in Moviemaker Magazine's annual top ten cities to live and make movies.
Austin also hosts the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, which attracts musical artists from around the world. The 2005 festival included Oasis, Coldplay, and Franz Ferdinand.
Theater Culture
Austin also has a strong theater culture, with dozens of itinerant and resident companies producing a wide variety of work. From Esther's Follies on E. 6th Street to Zachary Scott on S. Lamar, live entertainment can be found around the city.
Austin is served by these major highways: Interstate 35; U.S. Highways 183 and 290; Texas State Highways 45, 71, 130, Loop 1/MoPac, and Loop 360.
Going on a trip? Why not browse some of the luggage at eBags.com (external source)
Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Capital Metro) provides public transportation to the city, primarily by bus. Capital Metro is building a commuter rail system that is scheduled for completion in 2008. The system will be built on pre-existing freight rail lines and will serve Downtown Austin, East Austin, Northwest Austin and Leander in its first phase. An Amtrak Texas Eagle station is located west of Downtown. Segments of the Amtrak route between Austin and San Antonio are being evaluated for a future passenger rail corridor as an alternative to the traffic congestion of Interstate-35.
Austin's airport is Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, located 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the city.
Your vacation. A time to lose yourself. And sometimes your luggage, too. Need Travel Insurance? Why not try Travel Guard (external source)
* Austin has a humid subtropical climate, characterised by hot summers and mild winters. On average, Austin receives 33.6 inches (853.4 mm) of rain per year, with most of the precipitation coming in the spring, and a secondary maximum in the fall.
Temperature - Yearly Average
Summer
Summer in Austin is hot and typically humid, with average temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) from June until September. Temperatures above 100°F (38°C) are not uncommon, and the highest recorded temperature at Camp Mabry was 112°F in 2000. For the entire year there is an average of 111 days above 90°F (32°C) and 198 days above 80°F (27°C).
Winter
Winter in Austin is mild and dry relative to the rest of the year. For the entire year Austin averages 88 days where the temperature drops below 45°F (7°C) and only 19 days where the temperature drops below freezing. Snowfall is rare in Austin, but once every year or two Austin is typically hit with an ice storm, freezing over roads and shutting down much of the city for typically about a day.
Lonely Planet Maps (external source)
Lonely Planet Language Guides (external source)
* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
