Shoal Creek is a stream and an urban watershed in Austin, Texas, United States.

Shoal Creek has its headwaters near The Domain and runs in a southerly direction, soon reaching the intersection of Texas State Highway Loop 1, locally known as "MoPac Expressway" or simply "MoPac," and Highway 183. It continues south, partly along Shoal Creek Boulevard and Lamar Boulevard, through the western part of downtown Austin to its end at Lady Bird Lake.

Shoal Creek is the largest of Austin’s north urban watersheds, encompassing approximately 8,000 acres (12.9 square miles). About 27% of the watershed is over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone.The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, "SHOAL CREEK WATERSHED PROTECTION PLANNING SCOPING & FUNDING STRATEGIES," prepared for the Shoal Creek Conservancy, September 2016. Online at http://shoalcreekconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SCC-Meadows-Scoping-Funding-Strategies-Report-Final-with-Appendices.pdf Its length is approximately 11 miles. It runs parallel to and between Waller Creek to its east and Johnson Creek to its west.

The creek is notable for its links to the history of Texas and Austin, its floods, and its scenery and parks just a few minutes from the Texas Capitol.

Course and tributaries

Shoal Creek has its origin on the west side of MoPac, with two springs: MCC/UT Spring and Rogers Spring. It runs eastward from there, crossing MoPac, and then enters a culvert that runs south. It then turns into a swampy area at MoPac and 183, and goes under 183 through a culvert, and Shoal Creek Boulevard begins to follow the course of the creek on its west side.Shoal Creek Conservancy, Map, Shoal Creek Conservancy, undated. Online at https://shoalcreekconservancy.org/about-shoal-creek/map/Shoal Creek Conservancy, "Shoal Creek Trail: Vision to Action Plan," Shoal Creek Conservancy, 2018. Online at https://shoalcreekconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DRAFT-SC-REPORT-2018.06.21-digital.pdf

About a mile or more later, the creek crosses Anderson Lane and the Spicewood Springs/Foster Branch joins it from the west.

Perhaps a mile farther, the creek goes to the west of Beverly S. Sheffield Northwest Park, which is an important flood control facility, and it is joined from the west by the outflow from the Great Northern Dam, which is another one of the City of Austin’s Watershed Protection Department’s flood control projects. A minor tributary runs through the park from the east. At the downstream end of the park, Shoal Creek Boulevard crosses the creek and the street now follows the creek on the east side.

More than two miles later, north of 45th Street, the Hancock Branch, which has already been joined by the Grover Tributary, enters from the east. This is the largest tributary of Shoal Creek and drains about 2 square miles of residential areas, the Brentwood, Abercrombie and Crestview neighborhoods.

When the creek reaches 38th Street, Shoal Creek Boulevard ends, and the output of two springs enters the creek: the Beth Israel Temple Spring, just north of 38th, and Seiders Springs, just south. The year-round output of these springs creates a permanent pond north of 34th Street, which is the home of terrapins and fish.

The creek now heads southeast to Lamar Boulevard, which it follows on the west for the next two miles. Big Boulder Spring, just south of 29th Street, is the next permanent source of creek water. There is also a seep or spring on the other side of Lamar Boulevard that drains into the creek through a culvert.

Near 14th Street the creek goes under Lamar Boulevard and runs to the east of it for the rest of its course. At about 5th Street the creek makes a nearly right-angle bend to the east. The downtown part of the creek is channeled and many downtown streets run over it on bridges. Near 4th Street, the “lost” tributary, Little Shoal Creek, joins the main stream from the east. Little Shoal Creek was completely covered over by downtown development in 1917 Don Tate II, Below Austin's Surface, Austin American-Statesman, Undated, online at http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/pdf/08/0815UndergroundFinal.pdf

At Third Street, the creek flows under the historic Third Street Railroad Trestle.

The creek flows into Lady Bird Lake (the Colorado River) between Nueces Street and West Avenue, after running past the Central Branch of the Austin Public Library.

The difference in elevation from its source to its mouth is approximately 320 feet.Patricia B. Ging, Roger W. Lee, and Steven R. Silva, WATER CHEMISTRY OF SHOAL CREEK AND WALLER CREEK, AUSTIN, TEXAS, AND POTENTIAL SOURCES OF NITRATE. U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, Water-Resources Investigations Report 96-4167. Prepared in cooperation with the CITY OF AUSTIN. Austin, Texas, 1996. Online at: https://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/1996/4167/report.pdf

History

Arrowheads and other artifacts indicate that Native Americans occupied the Shoal Creek watershed 11,400 years ago.Pease Park Conservancy, "Park History," Pease Park Conservancy, 2017(?). Online at https://peasepark.org/park-history A Native American "burial mound" is said to be “near the old McCall Spring just west of the street now called Balcones Trail.” (Neither the spring nor the street exists now by those names.). The "burial mound" was likely actually one of several burnt rock middens excavated in the 1950s near a spring, believed to be McCall Spring. A Pedernales point found at one places the age of the middens at ca. 2500–3500 BP.Texas Historic Commission's Site Atlas (restricted access)Turner, Ellen Sue, Thomas Hester, and Richard McReynolds, Stone Artifacts of Texas Indian, 3rd Edition, Taylor Trade Publishing, 2011

There are also stories of attacks by the native people on early settlers. One Gideon White, who lived at Seiders’ Springs before the Seiders family settled there, was killed near his home in 1842 by a band of Native Americans.Leila Downs Clark, The History of Shoal Creek, Bryker Woods Neighborhood Association, 1954 https://brykerwoodsaustin.wordpress.com/our-history/the-history-of-shoal-creek/ A Mrs. Sarah Hibbins, who had been captured by natives when crossing the Colorado River in 1836, escaped them by night and followed the channel of Shoal Creek back to the Colorado, where she obtained help. Her two children, or perhaps only one of them, were rescued but her husband had already been killed.

James B. Rogers, one of the original settlers of Austin's little colony, received a grant in 1831 at the mouth of Shoal Creek. However, shortly thereafter he relocated about one-half mile northeast of the headwaters on the west side of the present-day railroad tracks at the extension of Kramer Road. Later occupied by his son Edward, the well-preserved structures are identified on maps as "Edward H. Rogers Homestead".

In 1837 or 1838 Mirabeau B. Lamar, later the second president of the Republic of Texas, visited Jacob Harrell who was camped near Shoal Creek. Lamar was looking for places that would be suitable for Texas’s new capital. He shot a buffalo and admiring the area’s scenic beauty, returned to Houston. After that visit, in 1838, the planned townsite of Waterloo was surveyed by Edward Burleson. The next year, when Lamar was president, a commission appointed by him recommended Waterloo as the capital of Texas.Jack Murphy, Watershed Urbanism: Shoal Creek’s Infrastructural Future. Mar. 30, 2017 Online at http://offcite.org/watershed-urbanism-shoal-creeks-infrastructural-future/ Lamar wanted the capital to be on the “frontier” and have room to expand. He considered Shoal Creek to be the frontier and the land west of it to be Comanche territory.Shoal Creek Conservancy, “Shoal Creek Trail: Vision to Action Plan [Draft], June 21, 2018, pg. 25. Online at https://shoalcreekconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DRAFT-SC-REPORT-2018.06.21-digital.pdf

Shoal Creek was named by Edwin Waller, and its mouth roughly marked the western city limits of Austin in the original 1839 Waller Plan of the city. In the "Bird's-Eye View" map by Augustus Koch, Shoal Creek is the large canyon on the left side.

When founded, the city issued land patents to several people, and others bought tracts of land. The Hancock (or Handcock) brothers, beginning around 1845, owned a huge tract spanning the creek, which stretched from what is now 45th street north about 2 miles to include the Allandale neighborhood. George Hancock apparently owned the southern and eastern part and John’s half was on the other side of the creek and to the north. This land was far outside the city limits at that time. John Hancock was a congressional representative. After he died, his family moved “into town” and sold the land, about 1896.

In 1846, Louisa Maria White, the daughter of Gideon White, who as mentioned above was killed by Native Americans, married Edward Seiders, who was in the livery and grocery business. They took up residence in the cabin by the springs where her father had lived. The springs thereafter started to be called Seiders Springs, and the nearby oak grove was known as Seiders Oaks.Texas A&M Forest Service, "Seiders Oaks," Texas A&M Forest Service, 2012. Online at: http://texasforestservice.tamu.edu/websites/FamousTreesOfTexas/TreeLayout.aspx?pageid=16141.

In the 1850s, Governor Elisha M. Pease acquired a 365-acre tract west of downtown, including some of the Shoal Creek watershed, which he named Woodlawn Plantation. After the Civil War, General George Armstrong Custer, commanding the 2nd Wisconsin and the 7th Indiana Cavalry, was assigned to Austin in late 1865 and early 1866 as part of Reconstruction and intended to use Governor Pease’s house, named Woodlawn, as his headquarters. Pease was out of the state at the time. The citizens of the city did not allow it. Custer’s men camped on the banks of Shoal Creek in the area that would become Pease Park. Some of them died of cholera and were buried by the creek.

Pease Park, originally twenty-four acres and part of Woodlawn Plantation, was given to the city in 1875 by former Governor Pease.

Austin's first bridge was built on Pecan Street (now 6th Street) across Shoal Creek in 1865. It was a narrow iron footbridge, built by the United States Army, and could not carry wagon traffic. In 1887, a new, larger bridge across Shoal Creek was built to match the full width of Sixth Street and permit wagons to cross; this West Sixth Street Bridge is still in use today, and has since been added to the National Register of Historic Places.U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Registration Form, West Sixth Street Bridge at Shoal Creek. Online at

In the 1870s, Edward Seiders still owned the property around Seiders Springs but had moved back into Austin. (At that time, Seiders Springs was outside the city.) Seiders Springs had become an important recreation destination and Seiders built bath houses, picnic tables, and a dance pavilion there. He provided transportation to and from Austin for those who wanted to visit the springs.

In the 1890s, there were rumors of buried treasure along the creek. Lights and digging in Pease Park at night was reported. Legend had it that Spanish gold was buried here.City of Austin. Creekside Story: Shoal Creek. 2012. Online at http://www.austintexas.gov/blog/shoal-creek

“Split Rock” was said to be used as a hiding place by outlaws, and there were also rumors of treasure buried in the vicinity. Split Rock is between 29th and 31st Streets. It was supposedly a hangout for children skipping school, who would go swimming at “Cat Hole” nearby or “Blue Hole” farther down the creek. Split Rock was the subject of a painting, “Split Rock on Shoal Creek”, oil on academy board, by Hermann Lungkwitz (1813–1891).