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. ;)
My good friend Joey Ramirez was heading up the School Maker Faire® at the elementary school and he asked if I’d like to present my Star Display as an exhibitor. I’m definitely a Maker Faire kind of guy, so I jumped right on board.
The two-hour after-school event was put on by Joey and the PTA, with the help of the Thinkery and the local robotics teams. Sponsors included: Pawsitively Healing Veterinary HouseCalls, Steiner Cleaners, and RG Orthodontics.
Our family’s been immersed in the local STEM and robotics groups for years, so there were lots of friendly, familiar faces. I was glad to show what I’d been working on recently, and I was impressed by what they had accomplished since we were here.
A few of the other exhibits and activities
Robotics
The robotics team hosted a nice interactive LEGO® robotics “play” area on their FIRST®FLL competition arenas. They also brought along two 3D printers that demonstrated the new equipment and skills they are using.
Student exhibits
Numerous school students presented their own tech and craft skills:
a giant rocket model made from PVC pipe
a plethora of Nintendo Labo projects
some excellent and arty craft glue projects
a flying Captain America shield made from cardboard and duct tape
The Thinkery
These exhibits were top notch and really got the kids involved in making:
Marble run chutes / sculptures on pegboard walls
Drawing with buzzy, wobbly, scribble bots
Building electric circuits that lit up and spun corks around like tops.
It’s a Major Award!
I was rather surprised that they handed out awards for the adult run exhibits, but it was a nice gesture on the part of the PTA. It made me feel like I’d won the science fair.
Wait… Doesn’t “coolest” override “coolest use”?
Well, it wasn’t a science fair, and maybe I didn’t really “win” after all, but I sure did enjoy it. I’m sure to be seen wearing my “winner” ribbon around town for at least 1.21 months. Thanks for the invite Mr. Ramirez, and thanks for bringing us all together to show our “maker” sides!
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.
If you read my last blog post about Rutledge Spur, you might have noticed I’m into maps and aerial photos. I’m not just sort-of into them. Definitely addicted.
I’m not really sure when it started. I can vividly recall an early memory from when I was 7 years old. My family was moving from Ohio to Arizona and the moving company had supplied us kids with maps and an atlas. I remember following along from the back seat of our Fury III as we got to each town along the way, marking the progress along the highways we traveled. I was already pretty comfortable with maps at the time.
In grade school, a graduate student from the University of Arizona came to try to find out what skills our young minds used for navigating. He brought an aerial photo of the area around the school, and told me to walk us to a spot he was pointing at on the photo. I’d never had access to an aerial that showed our neighborhood before. My first question was “Where do you get these?” I knew it didn’t come from the gas station. I was thrilled to show him how to get there, using my skills counting streets, turns, and houses, but also using visual cues like trees and driveway styles. That guy did not expect a 4th or 5th grader to have that knack yet. He also told me he borrowed the photos from the U of A library. “Mom? Can we go there?” It turned out the graduate student’s borrowing privileges were higher than my elementary student privileges.
I enjoyed learning orienteering, compass, and mapping skills in the Boy Scouts. Gaining access to great topographical maps of the Santa Catalina Mountains fed my addiction, also prompting me to ask where they’d come from. That’s where I found out about Tucson Map and Flag. “Mom? Can we go there?” Alas, time, distance, and money kept me away.
In college, my eclipse chasing buddies were into maps too. At one point my housemate had plastered an entire wall with adjoining sections of the Baja peninsula. By then, I was able to provide transportation on a few trips to the map store.
My interest in aerial observation also stemmed from an interest in flying. I’m a window seat guy with a sore neck. I complteted ground school for becoming a private pilot and also did a few hours of flight time, but job changes kept me from continuing toward that goal at a couple of critical points. I still have lots of old aeronautical charts from those days.
As a defense contractor employee, I learned to use early military GPS receiver data streams at work. When they made accurate GPS available to regular citizens, Geocaching became possible. That was a real marriage of tech and the outdoors. That turned out to be a great match for me. Wow, how great is it that we have all this stuff on our smart phones now?
So, what’s the big draw maps for me? Probably the alternate way of looking at the world around me. Sometimes it’s getting the big picture: “How big is this park?” Sometimes it’s time travel: “What was here before?” Sometimes it’s getting there: “What way do I go?” And sometimes it’s a treasure hunt: “There’s something here I want to see.” The ultimate “treasure” for me is finding out something unexpected or unusual about a place.
I’ve been looking maps and aerial photos of the area near the Marshall Ford / Mansfield Dam near Austin because the Lone Star Trail that I’m researching went through the area. In August 2018, I ran across aerial photos of the dam from 1940 on this City of Austin site. Note: You can click on the images of this post to see more detail.
Marshall Ford Dam under construction (1940) (cropped from COA file 1940_COR-10-022_E.jp2)
In 1940, the dam was being built. It’s construction was the primary catalyst for change in our area; a huge change allowing Austin to grow and become what it is today.
As I used the Google Earth Pro desktop app to align the old aerial photo to the Google map of the modern roads, I came to realize that a second second “road” that paralleled the current RM 620was not really a road.
Modern Google Earth imagery (top) Composite 1940 aerial photos (bottom) COA files 1940_COR-10-022_E, 032_W, 032_E
It was a railroad! The spur line was built by Brown and Root, Inc. of Austin, and McKenzie Construction Co. of San Antonio. They were also the construction contractors for the dam.[1] I think it was called the Rutledge Spur due to it’s origin at Rutledge Station in Rutledge, TX[2], but I’m not entirely sure. A Statesman article[6] indicates that this was part of the Houston and Central Texas Railway line. I had previously read about that very rail line in Carol MacIntosh Sikes‘ book Hudson Bend and the Birth of Lake Travis that I’d borrowed from the library in Lakeway. However, I did not realize that the rail line extended 11 miles east of the the dam construction area.
The rail line was temporary. It’s gone now. I’d lived in the Steiner Ranch area for 17 years, and never heard anything definitive of it until 2018 when I read Carol’s book. [Well, there were those few nights after we’d first moved here where I thought I heard an old steam train whistle from that direction, but I digress.] The dam was started in 1937[3], and that is when it was built. It was used to haul rock, steel, and equipment to the site. It’s been gone a long time. Northbound 620 now covers the old bed between Quinlan Park Road and RM 2222.
In the bottom half of the photo above (ca. 1940), you can see the dam under construction on the leftmost side. Note that in 1940, Lake Travis is not filled. In the center bottom (from later 1940), the lake is filled some more, but is not high enough to cover Horseshoe Bend (AKA Sometimes Islands). The railroad line (in orange) follows the Marshall Ford road (in blue) from the right, before deviating into a few turning sections and storage lines. The road does not go over the dam yet, but connects to the current low water crossing bridge. The white and yellow lines are the modern roads. An interesting old dirt road is in purple.
In the top half, you can see that the modern road is straighter, staying south of the current Marshall Ford Road.
Near the Dam Construction Site
Zooming in on the composite
To the right of the dam, in the center and north of Marshall Ford road (blue), you can see the cabins used by the building crews. They are arranged in a semicircle that goes out toward the lake. In the center of that, there is another row of cabins on a road extending north. I’d like to know if anyone can find names, maps, layouts, or other history for those camps.
Just past the hollow to the east on the south side of the Colorado River, you can see the clearing where the current Marshal Ford Foodmart sits. To the west of that was the Marshall Ford Bar. That bar burned down, I’m not sure when. Carol details a little about the bar in her book. I believe there were cabins behind these places as well.
Here’s an even closer look at the rail yard near the dam:
The rail yard near the dam construction side from COA file 1940_COR-10-022_E
The Low Water Crossing road is at the bottom of the picture. The comma shaped area above the rail line will eventually be the huge mound of rocks that are part of the east end of the dam. They probably pulled the tracks out as they started piling up the rocks, because those rocks are now on top of the old railroad beds in that spot.
Below is a panoramic view of the rail yard published in an early 1938 issue of Reclamation Era.[9] The photo’s written annotations identify some features visible from the aerial: The aggregate bins, mixing plant, and even where the earth embankment will go. To the south of the aggregate bins, at the end of the rail line is a two story structure that might be a rock or gravel sorter. It’s about the same shade as the background here, so it’s hard to see. In some other photos I’ve seen, it is often surrounded by a cloud of some sort. There were also rails on the other side of the river at the movable cableway head tower. Mansfield Dam Park is there now. I’m pretty sure the rail and building on the right side of the picture had already been removed by 1940, the date of the aerials.
The dam construction rail yard (1937-1938)
The grade to the Jollyville Plateau
1940 composite from COA files 1940_COR-16-032_E and RG114-DN0139-COR-9-026_W
The railroad (orange) deviated from Marshall Ford Road (blue) to ascend the hill near current Comanche Trail. It went south around the hill that the Steiner Steakhouse now occupies. Traces of the railroad ballast are still visible to the west of the steakhouse in Google Maps aerials. The 1940 aerial also reveals a dirt road “shortcut” to the current RM 2222 in purple. I wonder if that road had a name. It might have been “The Marble Falls Road” as mentioned in a 1932 story about an Native American burial site found in the area.[8]
The August 1937 issue of Reclamation Era[7] has the following photo that was probably taken from the SE part of the route around the hill. It’s stated to be about 3 miles from the dam site, and that’s what I measure along the rail line route. The cut through the rock still exists today, but is overgrown with trees. My family explored it found a railroad spike on the top of the “cliff” to the right in the photo.
Laying the rail for the railroad. Probable location of photo N30.38943° W97.87044°
Four Points (Hickmuntown), TX
Here’s a 1940 close-up at the location of the current RM 620 and RM 2222 intersection:
“Downtown” Hickmuntown from COA file RG114-DN0139-COR-9-026_W
Hickmuntown? No, I’d never heard of it either. But, that’s what they used to call the Four Points area[5]. The railroad line is the straight line from top to bottom in the middle. Note that Bull Creek Road (FM 2222) is paved to the Marshall Ford road (RR 620) the paving only continues south from that point. What about the other dirt road just to the east and heading north from here? Well, technically, you are on it if you are entering/exiting current HEB by the gas station. That road went up to the current 620 and Boulder Lane (the south intersection of the two) before crossing over near 4 Paws at Four Points. It might have also been called the Marshall Ford road. Another possibility is the Anderson Mill Cutoff road. Where’s HEB? Well, it won’t be out here for almost 60 years.
Rutledge Spur between RM 2222 and Anderson Mill Road
Rutledge Spur in 1940 (left) and 2018 (right), from RM 2222 in Four Points (bottom) to Anderson Mill Road (top)
The current RM 620 (in yellow on the right above) covers the old railroad path to the current US 183 (formerly SH 29). The section shown above is between RM 2222 in Four Points and Anderson Mill Road near Cedar Park. The red line on the right highlights that old dirt road that existed in 1940. It paralleled and crossed the railroad. It has to be the short-cut described in an article[4] from the Austin American.
Spur Tie-in to Southern Pacific at Rutledge
1940 aerial of the Rutledge Spur near current SH 183 and RM 620 from COA file 1940_COR-15-034_E
The spur’s tie-in to the Southern Pacific rail line was in Rutledge, Texas (now part of Austin). The tie-in is almost completely visible at the top right of the 1940 aerial above. That spot is near current Lakeline Mall Drive and Lyndhurst Street, and the current Lakeline Station. There is still a street called Rutledge Spur that terminates at the tie-in point. The crossed roads at the lower left are SH 29 and the road that will eventually be RM 620. I am unaware of the historical name of 620 at that time.
Sources
[1] Work Due Upon Rail Track to Marshall Ford, The Austin American (1914-1973), March 16, 1937: 1.
[6] Useless boulders turned into pretty Road Signs by Fruend, The Austin American (1914-1973), March 20, 1938: 8. Clipping on newspapers.com
[7] Photo 3 at bottom of page, Reclamation Era, Volume 27, No. 8, August, 1937: 183. Pdf available here. Note: The photos on this page seem disconnected from any articles in the issue. The caption tells the story.
[8] Indian Skeleton Found in Cave Near Here, The Austin Statesman (1914-1973), March 8, 1932: 10. Clipping on newspapers.com
[9] Photo B at top of page, Reclamation Era, Volume 28, No. 1, December, 1938: 12. Pdf available here.
Do you know more?
Your comments and corrections are welcome! Please feel free to share what you know here or contact me directly.
Great news! Today, I got word that my GitHub push request was accepted by Adam at Maniacal Labs, so my code is now integrated in their BiblioPixelAnimations package. I’m hoping that one day, I’ll get to see someone else use the code for their own project.
I designed it in high school. I was working on some electronics projects and wanted to put a logo on them. This is what I came up with. The idea is basically an M for Mulanax with motor commutators around it. I was also thinking sturdy robot “hands”. The original color scheme was green and yellow.
The logo in 1983
I designed it so it could be stenciled in one or two steps. I also concentrated on using unit based layout and line thickness. At some point I reduced the outer radius by one unit, and narrowed the M. I remembered hearing that concentric circles and arrows emanated precision.
When I was working to upload it for the blog site today, I realized it looked a lot like a stove burner. Hey! Some custom colors to match the site palette, and here we are.
I’m looking for and preparing for my next career opportunity. My school and work experience are listed on LinkedIn.
I’m not one to just let the wind blow me to the next place. I want to put in some thought, so I can apply my efforts to move toward something that is going to continue to be relevant.
Where I am
My chosen career is computer engineering. To me, that’s designing computer systems that people and businesses need to get their tasks done. The design discipline has two main aspects: computer hardware (electronics) and computer software. I’ve gained lots of experience in both, and I definitely want to keep close to my experience base. Relevant experience will be what’s most useful to my employers in quickly getting their project completed.
Lots of my hardware designs have required software or firmware to complete the product, and most of them have required me to write some kind of functional test software before hand-off to other teams or the customer. Here is a subset of my skills that I see as being useful to employers going forward:
There’s been a shift in consumer hardware that has already affected my career. I took a while for it to sink in, but the shift to a smaller set of mass produced mobile platforms (phones and tablets) instead of individually engineered devices has translated to a smaller number of hardware products being developed. The smartphone is the hardware “hammer” that gets applied to most problems today. The phones take over as the general purpose computer and it’s chosen as the ready-made solution in lots of cases.
Where to next?
Being involved in the engineering of phones and phone chips has been good for me in the last few years. That might continue for a while longer, but the competitive field is narrowing. It does appear that there is increased interest in IoT hardware to connect to those phones. The devices are medical, industrial, and some home products.
So with the changes, I’ll probably have to shift focus a little. These are some adjacent engineering specializations that are in demand and appealing to me:
IoT communication
Machine learning
Cloud hardware and software
Blockchain and network security
Software defined radio
Finally, there are things that I’ve been interested in, but require a complete shift out of the computer engineering field, but hopefully not too much additional training:
3D mechanical design
GIS mapping
Drone 3D surveys
I’ve been looking into inexpensive ways to train in all these fields and I’ve progressed well into a few of them. I’m not concentrating on any one thing too much as I’m not really sure where I’m going to get traction. My future posts to this blog will detail my progress. If you have any suggestions, or know anyone who is blogging about the same things, I’m open to hearing about it!
I took the image for this blog post at George Washington’s Mt. Vernon home in 2006.
The Front Burner 