If you have been to Travis Audubon’s Blair Woods recently, you may have noticed a large stone marker encased in burlap cover near one of the trail segments. What’s going on?

This June 30th, at the request of and in collaboration with the Texas Historical Commission and the Travis County Historical Commission, a 1936 Texas Centennial historical marker was moved from the Martin Luther King Jr Blvd right-of-way, adjacent to Blair Woods, into the preserve itself. This marker notes the location of old Fort Colorado from 1836 to 1838. The marker was restored and moved by Gilbert Beall of Beall Memorial Art in Austin. The move was funded by grants from Preservation Austin and the Travis County Historical Commission.

The presence of the old fort was known to Frank and Fern Blair. Fern told stories handed down to her by neighbors whose predecessors scavenged building materials from the remains of the fort. Coleman Springs, located in Blair Woods, was considered to be a primary reason for locating the fort in the area.

Over the last few years, the Blair Core team has dug into the rich history of Blair Woods with the help of historians and archaeologists. Due to the efforts of many, the Preserve has been deemed eligible to be an official stop on the El Camino de los Tejas National Trail. In consultation with the National Park Service (NPS), the consensus was to secure the marker by moving it into the preserve.

Why the cover? Travis Audubon feels strongly that the inscription on the marker, written in 1936, referencing “savage Indians” and protecting the “Anglo-American race” is both historically inaccurate and offensive. The historical record around the fort’s presence is both rich and complex, and involves cooperation, trade, and communication among all the peoples who moved through Central Texas at that time.

What to do? With the help of the NPS, the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historical Trail Association, the historical commissions, and local experts in the history of Texas indigenous peoples, we will develop an interpretative educational display for the marker site, exploring fully the role of the fort in the lives of all the peoples of historical “Tejas.” The cover will be removed when the display is installed, hopefully within the next year.

You can learn more about the rich history of El Camino and Fort Colorado in this video.