I'm Steve, and this blog is about what I'm working on or thinking about right now. At least it was when I wrote it. I'm guessing I've already moved on to something else. ;)
Austin Aerials from 1940 in Property Profile. The path of the old Jollyville Road is shown from MoPac to Spicewood Springs / McNeil Rd.
I’d previously mentioned finding online sets of historic aerial photographs of Austin, Texas and it’s surrounds. Those were found by following the link at the bottom of the Austin History Center‘s page for Aerial Photographs. Here is the direct link to that box repository.
Yesterday, I found out that the City of Austin has provided access to some of the the photo sets in a more user friendly format. They’re provided in a map form like you’d find in the satellite view of Google Maps. Wow!
In the upper left corner of the map, click that button that looks like a less than sign to hide the Welcome pane.
Start with the full map, or navigate to your point of interest.
Click the button in the lower left corner (labeled GreyScale…), and then click the All Aerials button when it pops open.
On the basemap slider that pops up, move the time slider to the left.
Imagine a time machine noise as the map loads.
If your map goes/stays blank, your time machine landed off the map. There probably isn’t any aerial data for that year. Zoom out to see where the year’s data is.
If you want to fade the street labels layer into the aerial photo:
Click the Change visible map layers button at the top of the page.
Click the Aerial Street Labels checkbox near the bottom of the list
Vary the slider to the right of the checkbox
You can also add other layers like the red centerlines of today’s streets as shown above.
Click the Change visible map layers button
In the left pane click the checkbox under Property/Address Information/Streets
The street centerlines only show up at higher zoom levels
What did you find?
I absolutely can not wait to find out what others discover or would like to share about Austin’s past. Do feel free to share something here. Also, consider sharing it in your own blog post or in this great Facebook group.
Hike GPS data overlaid on the National Geographic topo basemap
Once you have a little ArcGIS under your belt, you find yourself applying it to the things you do. In late 2018, my son’s BSA troop went to Big Bend National Park, and I captured some GPS track data while we were hiking. When I got home, I merged the track data and some basemaps in ArcMap. Starting from my previous poster layout and adjusting to 8.5×11 was pretty straightforward. Now I’ll have something to work from the next time I need that size.
I really like the National Geographic USA basemap in ArcGIS for this kind of thing. I’d also purchased a physical, waterproof version of the NG map (#225) at the park store. You can get your own copy here. The trails for this area are not as detailed on the 1:133,333 physical map. I still think it’s worth getting.
Our partial hike up the Marufo Vega / Strawhouse trail was fun. We started at the parking lot along the road at the bottom of the map and went North. Where you see the tracks deviate under the E in VALLEY, we missed the Strawhouse Trail’s ascension out of the creek bed. We ended up hiking through a nice slot canyon to the West before we hit our 2.5 mile turnaround point.
Up and out through the slot canyon
On the way back we discovered the correct trail, and returned via the “high road”.
Down and back over the saddle
Both tracks were enjoyable for their own unique views.
I’ve got hundreds of great photos from the trip, and I’m considering working on full blog posts for those hikes as time permits.
50dpi version of the original 300dpi 16″x20″ print
About this Map
The main image was assembled in 2018 from several individual aerial photographs taken over 60 years ago. The public domain images are available through a web repository owned by the City of Austin. I learned about them while researching the path of a Boy Scout trail that used to pass through Steiner Ranch. The whole poster idea came about after I had created the mosaic for my research. My wife said “You should print that and put it up at Cups & Cones.” I listen to her most of the time. 😉 You can view it there if you’re in the neighborhood. I had the idea for the “classic” border. I’m open to ideas for other formats/media. Contact me through the e-mail link at to left if you are interested.
Today Marks 69 Years Since The Opening Of The Lone Star Trail
4/23/2019
I’ve been researching the trail (off and on) since 2003 when I stumbled across a mysterious metal marker in Austin’s Emma Long Park.
Trail? There wasn’t a trail there as far as I could tell. I had no idea how old the marker was. The marker was just nailed to a tree, way back in the woods. The ground around it was undisturbed, maybe for a decade according to my first underestimate. Yes, this plaque turned out to be older than I imagined.
As I found it 11/14/2003
In 2003 I just took a picture and moved on. I was hunting something else, a geocache that promised to be somewhere nearby. I set the mystery aside for a while. I posted a photo of the marker with a question about its unknown (to me) history to the internet in 2005. I got the break I needed in 2012 when someone finally associated it with the old Camp Tom Wooten.
Just a quick note: The trail is not to be confused the Lone Star Hiking Trail that winds through the Sam Houston National Forest. This trail is older, and was opened April 23rd, 1950.
Camp Tom Wooten was the big Boy Scout camp near Austin, operating from about 1937-1972. It was out where The Courtyard neighborhood is near the Pennybacker bridge. Eventually, I found Frank Hilton’s Lone Star Trail website, and the hand drawn map shown above. Wow, a real treasure map! Frank’s site is loaded with information. I greatly appreciate his efforts to keep and distribute the history. Since then, I’ve been looking into where the trail went. From the map, I found out that trail winds through the area where we live in Steiner Ranch, and through City Park / Emma Long Park where I found the marker. I’d already been to many of the places it passes through.
Recently, I’ve been using old City of Austin aerial photographs as overlays in the free Google Earth Pro desktop program to find the latitude and longitude of various places and trails I can see in those aerials. When I take the old overlays off, I can see the locations on a modern satellite image. Most of the trail is invisible from the air in 2019. I can see quite a bit in the 1966 aerials. There were less trees then. To date, I have not yet found any of these concrete milestone markers beyond the one for the start that has been moved to the museum (see below). I suspect they were all gathered up when the trail closed.
I’ve also contributed some to Frank’s web page. Namely the modern map (still incomplete) at the bottom of the page and the photo of the aluminum marker.
The trail started at Camp Tom Wooten (now closed and re-developed) and Frank’s website has some pictures of some spots along the trail. I have actually visited the cave shown in those pictures while geocaching.
Original Camp Tom Wooten administration/headquarters building (now at Lost Pines Scout Reservation) Camp Tom Wooten museum in the Log Cabin at at Lost Pines. LST exhibit inside the Camp Tom Wooten museum at Lost Pines
In 2018, I retrieved the metal trail marker I’d located and turned it over to the museum. By then, it had fallen neatly from the tree and was ready to go.
I’m now using a much more powerful mapping program called ArcGIS Desktop, and am learning that to finish up a nice printable map.
2/27/2021 update
Another Lone Star Trail Marker, as found 6/1/2020
My son and I like exploring the trail area above the cliff near the camping area in Emma Long Park. We were out there last June and were having a hard time finding a geocache container that had been innocently moved from its original location. As we wandered around and around looking everywhere, my son shouted out: “Dad, I think I found another marker!” Sure enough, he had. In fact we’ve probably walked right past this one every time we’ve been out there. This marker does not have the extra arrows found on the first marker. I presume those were there to mark a turn on the trail. It also has a bunch of .22 bullet holes in it as well as some kind of yellow paint or sticker that has peeled off over the ages.
Sources
Starr, Te (2012). Making a Difference Every Day – 100 Years of Central Texas Scouting – The History of the Capitol Area Council, Boy Scouts of America 1912-2012. Austin, Texas: Capitol Area Council
Google Earth Pro showing a 1940 Travis County Highway Map overlay and some waypoints
Continuing on the mapping theme, I wanted to talk about a few tools I use for my mapping activities.
MapSource
I use an old Garmin eTrex Legend GPS receiver for my geocaching hobby and backwoods exploration. I purchased Garmin’s MapSource Topo in 2004, and I still use it today. The software isn’t updated much anymore, but it reliably moves waypoint and track data to and from my receiver. My map database is still original, but it isn’t a big issue as I don’t tend to use the unit for street navigation. I usually save “raw” field data in .gdb files, and also save a copy where I’ve cleaned up the tracks or edited waypoint symbology and labels. These files can be converted / imported into the programs below.
Google Earth Pro
I know most people know about Google Maps in their on-line or phone app form. Fewer people know about the free, downloadable PC/Mac app called Google Earth Pro. In addition to allowing you to view zoom-able maps of the entire globe, you can also make your own maps to share with others. The features I use are:
Satellite basemaps (recent historical imagery is available)
Track and waypoint overlays from my collected GPS data
Photo overlays of old maps and aerials (zoomed and rotated)
Getting coordinates of features in the overlays and basemaps.
You can also make cool map fly-over videos. It’s an awesome tool and a great place to start learning about making maps.
ArcGIS / ArcMap
Sometimes you need the real deal for mapping. In my case, I found that building a composite aerial map of around 16 photos in Google Earth Pro was bogging down the computer I was using. I also needed to stretch a hand drawn map in a non-uniform way to match the basemap. That task exceeded the capabilities of Google Earth Pro’s zoom and rotate (AKA affine transformation).
Esri’s ArcGIS / ArcMap does all of this work very well. It’s not so easy for casual users without mapping experience, but it’s definitely the way to go for people who are really into this stuff. It lets you stretch maps and aerial images to fit other maps (georeferencing) and uses variable image resolution to speed screen update time. This is the tool that makes most of the print maps you see today. I’ve completed a lot of on Esri’s on-line courses. It’s the next best thing to community college courses on the subject. I find learning this tool to be quite engaging, especially when paired with my interest in local history.
QGIS
QGIS is another fantastic Geographical Information System program. It’s open source and free to use. It has many of the features of ArcGIS and its components. I did have great success in using the program to get beyond my issues in assembling the previously mentioned composite. On-line training is also readily available. I stopped using the program when I decided to start learning the more mainstream ArcGIS.
The Front Burner 