Everyone around here seems to ask, because of the name, if we are located on Fitzhugh Road.
Fitzhugh Road is pretty well known around here. It runs from US HWY 290 West running between Austin and
Dripping Springs and points beyond, through 2 or 3 counties, all the way to US HWY 281 in Johnson City.
Out there US HWY 290 bounces over to intersect it again. A nice road to cut back through the country.
But,I digress. The reason for this is to explain the Creek, not the Road. Fitzhugh Creek was for a long
time a mostly wet weather creek that started around Bell Springs Road and wound a few miles through the
Puryear (Pru’ yea) ranch to eventually dump into Barton Creek. Sometime in the 80′s I guess, the Puryear’s
sold some of their property to John Byram, or anyway, he ended up subdividing it. I guess it was he that
built the pond between Lakeshore Drive and River Road on Bell Springs Road. The realtor who sold me the
property at Lakeshore told me that they dug the hole for the lake until they hit water, and then it filled up.
Well somehow that lake now stays full, or partially full, all the time. When it rains hard the lake will
discharge through a culvert into what has become the headwaters of Fitzhugh Creek – the old start point,
a mile or so up the road, is all but forgotten. And when it isn’t raining so much, the lake water soaks the
ground so much that springs pop out some distance on the other side of the dam (which also carries Bell Springs Road)
and keep water flowing down Fitzhugh Creek, for the most part.
Now, Fitzhugh Creek is more of an all weather creek, and aside from an occasional dry spell (like we are in now)
or the unfortunate or not creation of a dam along the creek, it stays flowing pretty much all the time.