Explore McKinney Roughs Nature Park: A Historical and Ecological Gem in Texas
Published: July 24, 2024
Updated: July 24, 2024
McKinney Roughs Nature Park is a nature park and archaeological site located in Cedar Creek, Bastrop County, Texas. Encompassing an area of 1,140 acres, the park is adjacent to the Colorado River and has a system of trails suitable for hikers, cyclists, birdwatchers, and horseback riders. It was named after Thomas F. McKinney, famed financier of the Texas Revolution.
Approximately 2,100 years ago, during the Transitional Archaic period, the present-day location of McKinney Roughs Nature Park served as a campsite for prehistoric communities engaged in hunter-gathering activities. Over time, flood sediments gradually buried the site and preserved many non-perishable artifacts such as weapon projectiles, bones, mussel shells, fireplaces, and cooking ovens underground. The site was unearthed during excavations conducted prior to the construction of the adjacent Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa in 2001. Excavations exposed three prehistoric sites each buried by layers of sediment of the Colorado River and dating to 2,100 years ago (approximately 100 B.C.) as the earliest, to 200 A.D., and to 1150 to 1100 A.D. as the latest, respectively.
Key archaeological findings at McKinney Roughs Nature Park were projectiles known as Darls, which were equipped with small, chipped stone points. Some of the archaeologists involved in the excavation theorized that these weapons may represent the precursor or earliest form of the modern arrowhead. They also suggested that these projectiles may represent the earliest arrowheads used in that region of North America during the Transitional Archaic period.
In the 1850s the land comprising the present-day park was under the ownership of the family of John Calhoun Wise, a Tennessee native and one of the early settlers in Bastrop, Texas. Wise married Cynthia Hodges Houston, and Wise's descendants inhabited the property until the 1950s, when they sold the land. Subsequently, from the 1950s through the 1980s, ownership of the land changed hands among several individuals and businesses. In the 1980s there were proposals to develop the land for residential purposes. However, the onset of the savings and loan industry crisis halted the development project. By the 1990s the land had been sold to the Wilton P. & Effie Mae Hebert Foundation, a private foundation based in Beaumont, Texas. The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) purchased the property from them in 1995 and established McKinney Roughs Nature Park in 1998.
McKinney Roughs Nature Park encompasses an area where four distinct ecosystems (Post Oak Savannah, Blackland Prairie, Piney Woods, and a riparian zone) converge, resulting in a rich diversity of flora and fauna. Renowned for its birdwatching opportunities, the park and the nearby Lost Pines Forest provide habitats for more than 250 bird species. In addition, the park offers a variety of recreational activities and wildlife exhibits and is home to the Mark Rose Natural Science Center, the primary science program facility for the LCRA.
Bibliography:
Kevin M. Anderson, Ph.D., Another Colorado: Austin and the River (Austin Water—Center for Environmental Research at Hornsby Bend, 2023). Steve Carpenter, Vaughn M. Bryan, and Kevin A. Miller, The McKinney Roughs Site 41BP627: A Stratified Late Archaic II Site on the Colorado River Terraces, Bastrop County, Texas (Austin: SWCA, Inc. Environmental Consultants; Texas Antiquities Committee, 2006). Steven M. Kotter, Dan K. Utley, and Gregory Sundborg, McKinney Roughs: An Intensive Cultural Resource Survey Along the Colorado River, Bastrop County, Texas (Lower Colorado River Authority, 1996).
“McKinney Roughs: Archaic Campers on the Colorado River,” Texas Beyond History (https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/mckinney/index.html), accessed July 6, 2024.
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
José Andrés Herrera Farías, “McKinney Roughs Nature Park,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mckinney-roughs-nature-park.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
GKM16
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- July 24, 2024
- July 24, 2024
