Burnet County

Burnet County in central Texas, is bordered by Lampasas, Bell, Williamson, Travis, Blanco, Llano, and San Saba counties. Burnet, the county seat, is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 281 and State Highway 29 and on the Austin Area Terminal Railroad, about fifty miles northwest of Austin and 150 miles southwest of Fort Worth. The county's center is about three miles northeast of Burnet at 30º47' north latitude and 98º11' west longitude. The county, situated on the northeastern edge of the Hill Country, comprises roughly 1,000 square miles of gentle to broken hills with elevations ranging from 700 to 1,700 feet above sea level. The terrain in the northwestern, western, and southern parts of the county is characterized by rolling hills with local deep and dense dissections; fertile plateaus and valleys are found in the eastern section, and rolling prairies dominate the north and northeast. The land is drained by the Colorado River, which forms most of the western county line before meandering across the southern part of the county; by the San Gabriel River, which rises in three forks in the northern and central parts of the county; and by the Lampasas River, which cuts across the northeastern corner. Wildlife in Burnet County includes deer, coyotes, bobcats, beaver, opossums, ring-tailed cats, foxes, raccoons, turkeys, badgers, weasels, skunks, and squirrels, as well as assorted birds, fish, and reptiles. Among the county's mineral resources are granite, limestone, industrial sand, and graphite. The average minimum temperature is 37° F in January, and the average maximum is 96° in July. The growing season averages 234 days annually, and the rainfall averages about thirty inches.

Central Texas, including Burnet County, has supported human habitation for several thousand years. Although the archeology of Burnet County has not been fully studied, several prehistoric campsites have been found along the rivers and their tributaries. The hunting and gathering peoples who had established themselves in the area by about 4500 b.c. were probably ancestors of the Tonkawa Indians. No evidence of Spanish exploration or settlement has been found in Burnet County, although missions were established in the 1740s and 1750s in neighboring San Saba County. In the early nineteenth century, surveyors found the local Tonkawa and Lipan Apache groups to be friendly, but the Comanches made frequent raids into the area.