Chap 1 Hx of WLH - Epis 1 - 200 years of investment (Updated Sound 1/1/2024)

Our Westlake

Chapter 1 - Episode 1 - Early Land Grants in Westlake - 200 years of investment opportunities - as told by Emmett Shelton Sr. Original Developer of Westlake Hills 1905-2000 / Recorded 1976 (Updated Sound 1/1/2024)
For the past 200 years, Westlake has been the land of investment opportunity and Emmett can tell you all about it.
Emmett recalls the early history of investments in the land of Westlake Hills. He begins in 1836 when Gen. T.J. Chambers was awarded 137,000 acres in Travis and Hays Counties for helping Texas and Mexico develop their court systems. Chambers was a lawyer, land surveyor and investor. He used his land holdings to help finance the Texas Revolution. He got an additional 1000+ acres (most of Westlake) for his service in the Revolution. He also bought bounty certificates from soldiers after the war - he even had a land grant for the state capitol grounds. However, until about 1850 Westlake was Comanche territory, west of Austin's Treaty Oak. Land was of little value and most inaccessible - an investment. Chambers was assassinated in 1865.
The first area resident, M. Navarro, bought land from Chambers' heirs in 1872 and developed the first Westlake homestead in the Stonehedge Estates area. Before the dam was built in 1893, Austin folks could cross the river at the shallow Taylor's Slough near Mt. Bonnell. Austinites, and later railroads, needed the raw materials, primarily wood. Some of Chamber's land was divided into 10-acre 'wood' lots to accompany residential property sold in west Austin. Others sold lots cheap to settle debts. However, the dam on the Colorado River raised the river level and further isolated the hills. Westlake even attracted cattle ranchers like the McCullough Land and Cattle Company and Mrs. Davenport.
200 years of Dreams from the Hills.
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Music: Daddy's Dreams by Polk Shelton (Emmett's son)

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Stories told by Emmett Shelton / compiled and submitted by Cynthia Shelton.