Misplaced Pages

#792207

54-472: The 'new' Aztex played their home games at the 6,500-seat House Park just west of the downtown Austin core, until that stadium was severely damaged by the 2015 Memorial Day floods ; for the remainder of that season, they played at Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex. On October 2, 2015, the Aztex announced that because neither House Park nor Kelly Reeves met league stadium standards, and due to difficulty in procuring

108-674: A different ratio of isotopes, suggesting an origin of soil nitrate, ammonium fertilizer, sewage and animal waste. The researchers decided that sewer lines in the creek corroborated this finding. Old sewer lines might leak, they said, and the excess of chlorine relative to sodium indicated sewage: a mixture of human waste and chlorinated water. They found fecal coliform bacteria , ranging from 1 to 84,000 colonies/100mL during stormflow, and less than 1 to 1,600 colonies/100mL during baseflow. The investigators compared this with fecal streptococci (stormflow: 1 to 310,000 colonies/mL; baseflow: less than 1 to 960 colonies/mL) and interpreted this to mean that

162-482: 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

216-566: A new Austin Aztex team which would compete in the Premier Development League beginning in the 2012 season . The new Aztex played their first game on May 5, 2012 at Woodforest Bank Stadium , home of the Texas Dutch Lions , and defeated the hosts 4–0. The first Aztex goal was scored by midfielder Tony Rocha on a free kick in the 6th minute of play. The Aztex's first home game was played on May 19, 2012 against

270-459: A number of open-shelf, subtidal environments of the early Cretaceous with varying faunas. The Del Rio Claystone is also more or less discontinuous in areas along Shoal Creek. The Del Rio is about 25 meters (75 feet) of dark olive to bluish-gray to yellow-brown pyritic clay containing gypsum. The clay contains illite, montmorillonite, and kaolinite. Fossils of Ilymatogyra arietina , also known as Exogyra arietina , an extinct species of oyster from

324-471: A portion of this funding package. Giesecke & Harris designed the project and J. R. Blackmore & Sons built it. House Park opened in fall 1939 along Shoal Creek , just down the hill from the old campus of Austin High School near downtown. The stadium was built on land donated by Edward M. House , a former diplomat and adviser to Woodrow Wilson . House Park was later dedicated to the memory of

378-542: A stadium for each high school. On October 31, 1938, the Public Works Administration (PWA) offered the City of Austin a grant not to exceed $ 613,127 to cover 45% of the costs of school buildings, a stadium and field house, and additions and alterations to existing school buildings, including necessary equipment and acquisition of necessary land under PWA Docket No. Texas-2134-F. House Park was built using

432-631: A stadium that met those standards, the team would be on hiatus during the 2016 USL season. The Aztex planned to resume competition in 2018 after the stadium issue was resolved but in the event, did not return to the USL. USL Championship soccer returned to Austin with the newly formed Austin Bold FC beginning play in 2019 at their own stadium at the Circuit of the Americas . A Major League Soccer franchise

486-527: Is a hard limestone composed of oyster shell fragments (oyster shell biosparite or grainstone). Most of the other beds are mollusk limestones, softer in the lower part and harder in the upper part. This limestone in the Austin area represents shallow subtidal and intertidal deposits. The bottom layer is a shoal or beach that spread across the Del Rio Formation and scoured it at the top. The rest of

540-424: Is now developed. This is labeled “urban stream syndrome” by the City of Austin on its website. “The impervious cover created with new buildings and roads prevents rainfall from soaking into the ground. Then we need to get all of this stormwater out of the way so our buildings and roads don’t flood. So we collect the water at inlets and concrete pipes and send it straight to the creek.” The City of Austin, perhaps in

594-515: Is now on display at the UT Natural History Museum . A study of samples taken up and down the watershed from September 1994 to April 1995 found that, as expected in a creek running mostly on a limestone bottom, calcium bicarbonate is present in the water. The investigators showed that there is a lower concentration of nitrate (NO3-) and other dissolved solids during “stormflow” events, compared to “base-flow” samples. Nitrate

SECTION 10

#1732780171793

648-561: Is proceeding quickly. Ballet Austin , at 501 West 3rd Street, once a landmark, is now surrounded by office and residential towers. The Austin Music Hall, 208 Nueces Street, was torn down and a 28-story office building, Third + Shoal, took its place. Office buildings and mixed-use towers are still being constructed. The “tallest residential tower west of the Mississippi”, The Independent , is here. The new central public library , near

702-614: The El Paso Patriots before a crowd of 2,507. The Aztex rose to the occasion with a 6–1 win, with Kris Tyrpak providing three of the Aztex's six goals. The reborn Aztex finished their first season with 9 wins, 5 losses, and 2 draws. They won their first playoff game against the Ocala Stampede but fell to Orlando City U-23 's in the Southern Conference final. In preparation for the move to USL Pro ,

756-561: 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

810-406: The 1950s, moved a "honeymoon cottage" that had belonged to O. Henry from the east side of downtown to a location along Shoal Creek near Gaston Avenue. This meant that the cottage was just down the hill from the exclusive neighborhood of Pemberton Heights . Apparently the City had plans to move the O. Henry house (now in a small park downtown) to this location as well. The honeymoon cottage burned to

864-573: The Austin High students that lost their lives serving in World War I and World War II . As of 2012 , the stadium still serves as the home stadium for Austin High, as well as Anderson , LASA , McCallum and Navarro High Schools. The absence of a track sets it apart from most other high school stadiums in large cities, but it does also host soccer games and has in the past been the site of

918-471: The Aztex introduced a new logo and affiliated with the Columbus Crew SC , an MLS club which had also recently undergone a logo change. The Aztex kits were dark blue with gold numbers and gold trim. Their alternate kits were white with gold trim and numbering. Kits were provided by Admiral Sportswear . Emergo Group, an international regulatory consulting firm headquartered in Austin, served as

972-608: The Central Branch of the Austin Public Library. The difference in elevation from its source to its mouth is approximately 320 feet. Arrowheads and other artifacts indicate that Native Americans occupied the Shoal Creek watershed 11,400 years ago. 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,

1026-485: The Cretaceous, are common in this layer. Many very small species also are present, and the clay "lacks a normal bottom assemblage." This led Young et al. to conclude that it had been deposited in a lagoon with abnormal bottom conditions, which would account for the large amounts of pyrite. Upon weathering, the pyrite in the claystone reacts with water to produce sulfuric acid, which in turn reacts with calcite to produce

1080-481: The Del Rio claystone) which are more impervious to water. When the limestone over clay layers are exposed from the side, the water that percolates down through the limestone runs out on top of the clay. Big Boulder Spring shows how the local geology contributes to the formation of a spring. This spring is located on Shoal Creek just south of 29th Street. This is a gravity flow spring, with surface waters migrating down

1134-547: The Texas High School Lacrosse Championships. House Park is the home of Austin Sol , Austin's professional ultimate frisbee team. Their inaugural season home opener was April 9, 2016. In 2008, the natural grass playing surface was replaced with artificial turf . Fans were able to take patches of the grass turf as souvenirs. On May 25, 2015, historic flooding along Shoal Creek damaged

SECTION 20

#1732780171793

1188-484: 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

1242-401: The creek. Split Rock was the subject of a painting, “Split Rock on Shoal Creek”, oil on academy board, by Hermann Lungkwitz (1813–1891). The area to the west of the creek remained largely undeveloped into the 1920s. There were no bridges crossing the creek north of 12th Street for many years, probably due to the width of the canyon there and the steepness of its sides. The 24th Street bridge

1296-478: The creek. Lights and digging in Pease Park at night was reported. Legend had it that Spanish gold was buried here. “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

1350-549: 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 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

1404-408: The fecal bacteria came mostly from animal wastes, washed into the creek by rain. The Shoal Creek watershed contains steep limestone slopes, thin soils, sparse vegetation and impervious cover. About 30% of the watershed has tree canopy cover. Shoal Creek has ecological issues in common with most urban creeks: reduced vegetation, elevated streambank erosion, and impaired water quality. Nevertheless,

1458-620: The formation is shallow subtidal storm deposits; the different beds seem to have been subjected to storms many times, and most of the fossils have been broken. However, there are fossils of burrowing animals present. The Buda Limestone can be visited at a variety of outcrops along Shoal Creek, especially along the Hike and Bike Trail. Springs are present all over Austin because porous rock (the Buda Formation, and Edwards Plateau limestone, farther west) covers thick clays/shales (for instance,

1512-479: The ground on Dec. 23, 1956. Arson was suspected as this was the third fire in the cottage since it had been moved. In the 1950s, Janet Long Fish obtained the approval of the Austin City Council to construct a hiking trail from Pease Park to 39th Street, on her own time and using her own money. She walked the trail, leading a bulldozer, for four years. As of 2018, downtown development near the creek

1566-417: 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

1620-404: 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. In

1674-409: The mouth of the creek, is complete, and landscaping along the creek makes the waterway look more attractive. In May 2018, an elevated bank collapsed near 24th Street after heavy rains, which resulted in the closure of a segment of the just trail north of Pease Park. By January 2020, repair work stalled out due to an impasse between the city and the nearby property owners Population in the watershed

Austin Aztex - Misplaced Pages Continue

1728-402: 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

1782-667: The oldest, is the Georgetown Formation. It consists of alternating beds of thin, fine-grained limestone or limestone with marl. It is patchily or discontinuously distributed, with the patches separated by faulting. It varies from 13 meters (40 feet) in thickness to about 20 meters (60 feet) in different parts of Austin. The top of the Georgetown Limestone can be observed in Shoal Creek at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Georgetown Limestone represents

1836-503: The other reportedly without a name. 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. About a mile or more later, the creek crosses Anderson Lane and the Spicewood Springs/Foster Branch joins it from

1890-560: The overlying terrace deposits and Buda limestone, along vertical and horizontal fractures and faults and discharging at an opening where the fractured/faulted Buda Formation sits on top of the Del Rio Clay. Similar springs are present on the banks of Shoal Creek from the Pease Park area to near Koenig Lane. Seiders Springs is another spring near the banks of the creek. This spring may actually be two springs, obtaining their water from different sources, that are close to each other. One of

1944-602: The park, Shoal Creek Boulevard crosses the creek and the street now follows the creek on the east side. More than 2 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

1998-407: 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

2052-565: The selenite (crystalline gypsum) found in Austin and elsewhere in Texas. The lower boundary of the Del Rio is “gradational” (not sharply defined) with the Georgetown Limestone, and the transition occurs through one to two meters (several feet). The upper boundary in the Austin area is sharply defined from ("disconformable with") the basal beach limestone of the Buda Formation. The Buda Limestone consists of 11.5 to 16 meters (35 to 50 feet) of nodular, soft and hard limestone. The bottom of this layer

2106-514: The stadium and turf forcing the Aztex to search for a temporary home. 30°16′41″N 97°44′58″W  /  30.27798°N 97.749578°W  / 30.27798; -97.749578 Shoal Creek, Austin, Texas 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

2160-610: The team's jersey sponsor from 2012 through 2014. The Aztex badge was blue and gold with a Texas lone star , a soccer ball , and the word "AzTeX" with an enlarged A, T, and X. " ATX " is shorthand for Austin, Texas. House Park House Park is a 6,000–6,500 seat sports stadium in Austin, Texas , owned and operated by the Austin Independent School District . Unlike many school districts in Texas, AISD uses multiple shared stadiums including House Park for use in athletic events rather than building

2214-401: The two springs is an "ebb-and-flow" spring which varies from 2 to 7 gallons per minute to between 50 and 62 gallons per minute. “The Balcones Fault is visible from the 34th street intersection, which was once a creek crossing for the early Native Americans and later one of Austin’s first public highways.” Many outcrops and fault lines are visible in the Shoal Creek area. The elevation on

Austin Aztex - Misplaced Pages Continue

2268-595: The watershed is over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. 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 . Shoal Creek has its origin on the west side of MoPac, with two springs, one called MCC / UT Spring and

2322-619: The west side of the creek is higher than on the east, as West Austin is the beginning of the uplift of the Edwards Plateau , of which the Balcones Fault is the eastern boundary. Although the escarpment of the Balcones Fault is more likely to be gradual than sudden, there are places where it, or part of it, is well-defined. University of Texas students discovered a fossil ichthysaurus on upper Shoal Creek near Northwest District Park during an archaeological dig. The ichthysaurus

2376-476: 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

2430-630: Was 59,011 in 2000 and is projected to be 78,759 in 2030. Impervious cover was estimated to be 52% in 2017. Austin's current codes allow up to 64% of impervious cover in the watershed. Another source estimated impervious cover to be about 55% in 1996. The Shoal Creek watershed has three main types of rocks: the Georgetown Formation , the Del Rio Claystone , and the Buda Limestone . The bottommost of these, and hence

2484-546: 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 80-foot (24 m) 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. In the 1870s, Edward Seiders still owned

2538-559: Was awarded to Precourt Sports Ventures , former owners of Columbus Crew SC , to begin play in 2021 as Austin FC . The latest incarnation of the Austin Aztex was founded by David Markley, who was a minority owner of the original Aztex . The previous team's majority owners moved the organization to Orlando, Florida at the end of the 2010 season and renamed the team Orlando City SC . In September 2011, Markley announced plans to create

2592-423: Was built in 1928, in less than a month by private parties, and widened in 1938. It is a Texas Historic Landmark. The city adopted a plan in 1927 that provided for ample parkland along Shoal Creek. This was prudent since the regular flooding makes it unwise to construct buildings along the creek. Nevertheless, a number of homes and businesses are within reach of the creek's floods. The entire watershed of Shoal Creek

2646-466: Was called Dewitt’s Colony. There is supposed to be a Native American burial mound “near the old McCall Spring just west of the street now called Balcones Trail.” Neither the spring nor the street exist now by those names. In 1838, a few settlers lived along the creek’s mouth in the village of Waterloo when Mirabeau B. Lamar , later the second president of the Republic of Texas, arrived there. Lamar

2700-447: Was from 0.19 to 0.75 mg/L in stormflow and 0.02 to 1.9 mg/L during base-flow. Total dissolved solids were from 16 to 187 milligrams per liter for stormflow samples, and from 213 to 499 milligrams per liter for base-flow samples. By analyzing oxygen and nitrogen isotopes, they concluded that the nitrate in stormflow samples came from the atmosphere, and from soil nitrate and ammonium fertilizer. Nitrate from base-flow samples had

2754-542: Was killed near his home in 1842 by a band of Native Americans. 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. At that time, the village that would become Austin

SECTION 50

#1732780171793

2808-452: 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. The next year, when Lamar was president, a commission appointed by him recommended Waterloo as the capital of Texas. 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

2862-452: 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

2916-460: 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

#792207