ABOUT OUR NEIGHBORHOOD
OUR HISTORY is as colorful and rich as the residents of today. The land we call home once took a day or two by horseback to reach the City of Austin. Quinlan Park Road was still a country dirty road with cattle guards until 1990.
Mary Quinlan Park is located on land donated to Travis County in 1939. It consists of 5.8 acres with 200 feet of waterfront along Lake Austin with a boat ramp, basketball court, picnic areas, and parking. There is no fee to use the park.
The Spa originally started as a fishing camp in the 1940s, a nudist camp, rodeo clown lodging, and a weight-loss facility in the 1970's before becoming Lake Austin Spa Resort in 1997.
Sunday Break II, a music festival, took place in 1976 where The Grove neighborhood is now. Musicians included Fleetwood Mac, the Steve Miller Band, Chicago and Peter Frampton. An estimated 25,000 people came for the festival. Traffic was so bad, musicians had to be brought in by boat.
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Before it was Lake Austin, it was Lake McDonald, named after a former Austin Mayor. The Tom Miller Dam was first constructed downstream in 1940 and Mansfield Dam upstream in 1942 to create what is now Lake Austin. It is just under 21 miles long with a maximum depth of 75 feet. It is a constant level lake controlled by LCRA but has seen floods from significant rainfall over the years.
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A small cemetery is located just off Quinlan Park Road south of The Grove neighborhood with headstones dating back to the 1870s.There's very little information about the cemetery but headstones can be viewed here.
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The River Ridge area, initially served by a private groundwater system operated by the Mixson's was transferred to WCID17 for operation and connected to surface water in 2003. A few residences are supplied by private well water.