Explore Texas’ history at our 1800s adventure sites!


A system of marked trails and pathways begins and ends at Sprinkle Corner, and your Walking Tour of Texas’ colorful past should begin on the porch of the General Store. The tour moves from one landmark to another. Travelers should stay on pathways at all times. Each of the historic sites depict specific periods in Texas history.

  • 1899: Sprinkle Corner represents small rural community at the turn of the last century, featuring historic buildings, homes and exhibits

  • 1897: Dessau Church, built in 1876 by early settlers from Germany that hosted an early congregation of formerly enslaved Texans and where Elvis Presley sang gospel songs in 1955

  • 1892: Freedmen’s Farm, onetime home of the Dodson Family, a site just beginning restoration to showcase the successes of successful emancipated Texans

  • 1886: Cotton Planter’s Farm, home to the Bell Family, a prominent Texas family, including dependencies, barns, gardens and outbuildings

  • 1884: Scarborough Barn, a circa 1850 peg-and-post barn likely the oldest one still in agricultural use in Texas

  • 1881: Tenant Farm, a log building with an unusual witches-hat roof that will eventually house an exhibit on a tenant farm family

  • 1878: Texian Farm, home of the Jourdan Family that highlights the can-do spirit of early Anglo settlers from Eastern States

  • 1873: Stagecoach Stop, an actual stage cabin that displays the travails and surprises of early-day travel and where the Jolly Family from England once lived

  • 1871: Chisholm Trail site allows you to stand where the famous trail moved north from Austin, with Longhorn cattle on the prairie nearby

  • 1869: German Blockhouse, a restored stone fortress once built to protect Eastern European settlers from frontier marauders

  • 1866: German Emigrant Farm, home of the Kruger Family that shows how early European settlers made Texas their home

  • 1853: Tejano Farm, a future site that will depict Texas’ historic ties to Mexico and Hispanic culture and its strong influence on modern life

  • 1844: Tonkawa Encampment, a real First Peoples historic site showing how Texas’ indigenous residents once lived and flourished

  • 1842: Walnut Creek Greenbelt showcases what Texas was like when the early settlers arrived and camped along the historic creek

  • 1839: Republic Overlook depicts the area when Republic President Mirabeau Lamar chose Austin as Texas’ new capital, while standing on adjacent bluffs along Walnut Creek

  • 1835: Campamiento Mexicano, a future site that will represent a small military camp in the days when Texas was still part of Mexico