Hudson Bend

The community of Hudson Bend is located on Lake Travis about sixteen miles northwest of downtown Austin in northwestern Travis County. The area was first settled by the Wiley Hudson family in the early 1850s. Hudson, an emigrant from Arkansas, secured a land grant in 1854 near a bend of the Colorado River. This geographic feature and the ensuing farming settlement were named for the Hudson family. By 1860 four families lived in the region. Farmers utilized three area river fords—Marshall Ford, Watkins Ford, and Sylvester Ford—and traveled across the Colorado to grind their corn at a mill known as Anderson Mill. By the 1890s Hudson Bend had a school and a church. Eventually the school was consolidated into nearby Teck School. Hudson Bend, which consisted of a land area of approximately 4,000 acres, functioned as a farming and ranching community well into the first half of the twentieth century. With the construction of Marshall Ford Dam (present Mansfield Dam) and Lake Travis in the early 1940s, the Hudson Bend community lost nearly half of its acreage, and a cemetery was moved to Teck. Land use gradually changed from agricultural to residential. Lakeside recreational businesses such as marinas and lodges developed. In the 1940s developers S. C. McIntosh, Hugh Webb, and Jesse James created the first subdivisions, Hudson Bend Colony No. 1 and Hudson Bend Colony No. 2. A volunteer fire department was organized in the 1950s as well as a garden club. As a new population moved into the area, other civic organizations also formed. In 1978 Hudson Bend received a Texas Historical Marker commemorating its historic role in the development of the area. By the end of the twentieth century, much of the population consisted of retirees and Austin commuters. In 2000 Hudson Bend had 2,369 residents.