Mount Bonnell

Mount Bonnell
View from the summit of Mount Bonnell
Type	City Park
Location	Austin, Texas, USA
Coordinates	30°19′16″N 97°46′25″W / 30.321°N 97.7736°W / 30.321; -97.7736Coordinates: 30°19′16″N 97°46′25″W / 30.321°N 97.7736°W / 30.321; -97.7736
Area	5.36 acres (2.17 ha)
Created	1972 (1972)
Operated by	City of Austin Parks Department
Status	Open all year
Website	Austin Parks Foundation

Mount Bonnell ( /bəˈnɛl/), also known as Covert Park, is a prominent point alongside Lake Austin portion of the Colorado River in Austin, Texas. It has been a popular tourist destination since the 1850s.^[1][2] The mount provides a vista for viewing the city of Austin, Lake Austin, and the surrounding hills.^[3] It was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1969, and bears Marker number 6473.^[4]

Geography

Mount Bonnell is located at 30.3210°N, 97.7736°W (WGS 84 datum). Although the mount is often described as the highest point in Austin, the elevation at its peak (about 780 feet above mean sea level (AMSL)) is less than that of the Jollyville Plateau (max. elevation about 1100 feet AMSL [1]).

Origin of the name

Mount Bonnell is generally believed to have been named after early Texas newspaper publisher George W. Bonnell,^[5] who moved to Texas in 1836. George W. Bonnell was publisher of the local paper The Texas Sentinel and was prominent in early Texas and Travis County (Austin) affairs after the War for Independence.^[6] Though sources have long credited George Bonnell as the mountain’s namesake, Albert Sidney Johnston^[7] may have named Mount Bonnell in present-day Austin for his friend and fellow West Point graduate Joseph Bonnell,^[6][8] who was a Captain in the Texas Army during the War for Independence, was Aide de Camp to General Houston during that time, and has been recognized as a hero of the Texas Revolution by the Texas Legislature for his valor in events prior to the climactic battle of San Jacinto.^[9] There is little contemporaneous evidence to support either derivation of the name.

Legend has it that Mount Bonnell was once called Antoinette's Leap, after a young woman who leaped to her death to avoid being captured by Native Americans who had killed her fiancé.^[5]

Gallery

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  Outcrop at Mount Bonnell (Hill, 1889) ^[10]

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  1917 postcard depiction of view from Mount Bonnell

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  View from the summit

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  An engraved rock at the top of Mount Bonnell.

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  The engraved rock as it appears today.

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  A couple enjoys a Texas sunset on Mount Bonnell.

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  Historical Marker at Mount Bonnell.

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  Covert Park Marker at foot of Mt Bonnell

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  Mount Bonnell shelter

See also

• Texas Hill Country
• Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge
• Barton Creek

References

1. ^ Young, Kimberly (1998). Adventure Guide to Texas. Hunter Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 9781556508127. http://books.google.com/?id=_2c8Zsn5yZEC&pg=PA14. 
2. ^ Gonzalez, Esther (2004-03-27). "Austin proves interesting site for date trip". Plainview Daily Herald. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11194708&BRD=517&PAG=461&dept_id=473182&rfi=6. Retrieved 2009-07-08. 
3. ^ Communications, Emmis (June 1979). "Texas Monthly". Texas Monthly: 22. http://books.google.com/?id=Ly4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22. 
4. ^ "Mount Bonnell". Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. William Nienke, Sam Morrow. http://www.9key.com/markers/marker_detail.asp?atlas_number=5453006473&search_term=mormon. Retrieved 15 February 2011. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Mount Bonnell from the Handbook of Texas Online
6. ^ ^{a b} George William Bonnell from the Handbook of Texas Online
7. ^ Albert Sidney Johnston from the Handbook of Texas Online
8. ^ Joseph Bonnell from the Handbook of Texas Online
9. ^ Weber, Andrew (2011-09-25). "Mount Bonnell named for wrong Bonnell, West Point group says". Austin American-Statesman (Austin, Texas): p. B1. 
10. ^ Hill, R.T. (1890). "A brief description of the Cretaceous rocks of Texas and their economic uses". In: Dumble, E.T. (ed.), First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Texas, 1889,. Austin: State Printing Office. p. 134. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/books/landscapes/publications/txu-oclc-5235917-1/txu-oclc-5235917-1-b134a.html. 

External links

• Early 20th century photographic postcards of Texas places at the University of Houston Digital Library