Our readers have long memories. Doug Hanners and William Schleuse asked us to verify stories they had heard long ago about historic Austin fires, floods and “boil-water” notices.
“When we moved to Oak Hill in the 1980s, I heard several old-timers out here talk about the big forest fire of the ‘50s,” Hanners writes. “They said the western half of Travis County burned and citizens had to come out from town to help put it out. A result of the ‘50s drought, I guess. So any truth to this story?”
In newspaper files accessed digitally through ProQuest with an Austin Public Library Card, we learned about at least 17 area wildfires from 1874 to 2011. Curiously, those in western Travis County were known as “cedar fires” or “cedar brake fires” rather than “forest fires,” the term used nationwide.
The Daily Statesman for March 7, 1893, for instance, reported that a cedar brake fire started in the canyon west of Waceter’s farm on Bull Creek and wiped out more than 700 acres. Some fences burned; however, no lives were lost. (What you now know as the Austin American-Statesman went through several names over the years.)
The American-Statesman for April 12-14, 1925, related a three-day fire that incinerated more than 10,000 acres near Cedar Valley in between Oak Hill and Dripping Springs. A farmhouse was lost, and a man, a cedar-chopper who was renting that house, barely escaped with his life. Other houses were saved, some by Austin firefighters.
“Practically every able-bodied man in that section of the county is in the burning area,” the American-Statesman reported, “keeping close watch on the flames and standing ready to protect homes of those in the path of the fire.”
It’s amusing to read today the many references in these articles to “valuable cedar timber.” In fact, tall, straight, pest-resistant canyon cedar was exported from the area to ranches and farms all across the Southwest for use as fencing. So it was valuable.
The Statesman for March 27, 1928, ran with the headline “Cedar Fire In New Life Tuesday.” Northwest of Austin, winds caused a cedar fire — thought contained — to threaten both sides of the Colorado River including the Rob Roy ranch on Bee Cave Road.
The Statesman for July 5, 1939, tells about a big fire just outside city limits on Barton Boulevard, which was much closer to downtown Austin than most previous ones. A street grader was sent to fight the blaze. “A long sheet of flame and billowing clouds of gray and black smoke, blown by a south wind, can be seen from the city,” the newspaper reported. “All firemen were called to their posts in case of emergency."
The American-Statesman for March 31, 1948, relates how 10,000 acres in Northwest Travis County close to Bull Creek were scorched. More than 100 people volunteered to fight it. A bad hailstorm “beat a heavy carpet of leaves to the ground and the fire fed on leaves and underbrush in the heavily wooded area."
The cedar fire that Hanners heard about might have been the one reported by the Statesman in the Dec. 8, 1959, edition. “A spectacular brake fire in rugged terrain west of Oak Hill was only a frightening memory Tuesday,” the article read after the fire was contained. “But because the land is dangerously dry, a close watch was being kept.” At least 1,200 acres went up in flames, and several neighborhoods, including houses on Circle Drive, were evacuated. Detachments from Bergstrom Air Force Base helped volunteers from all over the city. Report: “Bergstrom always comes out.”
I found far fewer references to forest fires in the Lost Pines area, where the Bastrop Complex fire raged in September and October of 2011. That one spread to 34,000 acres, killed two people and destroyed 1,691 residential structures, becoming one of the most destructive in Texas history.
Yet there was some precedent. On Oct. 31, 1955, Statesman reporter Bill Woods' article ran with the headline “Bastrop Park Half Burned in Wild Fire.” That 2,100-acre fire came before Bastrop had attracted much development, so farm structures were the main buildings threatened as the wildfire headed toward Paige.
We should note that what have been called the Labor Day fires of 2011 — right at the peak of our worst recent drought — also hit other areas, including western Travis County.
First boil-water notice?
“The recent drinking water boil order has been characterized as ‘unprecedented’ in a statement from Austin Water and by others as well," reader Schleuse writes us. “I have a vague notion of such an order when I was a very young child, which if veridical (truthful) must have been during the 1935 flood.”
The 1930s and ‘50s brought several terrible floods to Austin during some of our meanest droughts. Yet the one in 1935 was the worst, especially since it came before the Lower Colorado River Authority dams that still protect Austin were built.
But let’s look at a couple of others first.
In 1934, the newspaper announced there was “No Need to Boil Austin Water.” Tom Green, superintendent of the city filtration plant that eventually bore his name — now the site of lakefront downtown towers — said the water was potable, despite objectionable odor and taste caused by what rains washed into area streams.
In 1952, towns throughout the Hill Country cleaned up after a deadly flood, and residents in San Saba and New Braunfels were urged to boil the flood-polluted water. Austin was by then protected by the dams.
What about 1935?
The June 21 edition of the Statesman ran with this headline: “Because Raw Water Got Into Mains, Precautions Urged.” It is unclear which authority ordered these bold steps, which were mainly concerned with preventing a typhoid outbreak.
1. See your physician for typhoid inoculations.
2. Boil all drinking water for at least 10 minutes.
3. Any water that touches the mouth or lips, as used in washing teeth, should be boiled at least 10 minutes.
4. Rinse all vegetables in boiled water.
5. Do not put unboiled water in mechanical refrigerators for freezing ice cubes. Freezing does not destroy all germs.
6. Dishes washed should be thoroughly scalded in boiling water.
7. Austin artesian water is safe, but physicians warn against drinking water obtained from untested wells and streams. It may be worse than the flood water.
8. Consult your physician upon the first appearance of any abdominal disturbance.
On a lighter note, the Feb. 10, 1952, edition of the American ran a two-sentence bit of domestic advice under the headline “Don’t Boil That Water!”
“Keep the water in the bottom part of a double boiler almost, but not quite boiling when you are making custards. Too high heat is like to make your custard lumpy.”
