About us
This walking group explores the dynamic past and present of Austin's urban environment. We discover the birds, balconies, and boneyards, forgotten civic skeletons and rewilded lots, and weird-Austin-era yard decorations that stitch together Austin's urban and natural tapestry. These events are intended to be adventures but not guided tours.
Photographers and gardeners, historians and placemakers, sociologists and armchair architecture critics alike should feel welcome, provided we have at least two things in common: a deep curiosity about the city of Austin and decent enough shoes to carry us where curiosity leads.
This monthly group won't be the fastest hiking group in the city, but we'll cover 5-7 miles at a contemplative pace. Afterward, some of us stick around to find a place to rehydrate, eat our way back to calorie-neutral, and talk about it all.
Upcoming events
3
Stephenson Preserve and Kincheonville
Longview Neighborhood Park, 7609 Longview Road, Austin, TX, USLong before the city acquired Stephenson Nature Preserve for outdoor education and parkland, the cedar-and-mesquite tract marked the northern edge of Kincheonville, one of Austin's least-remembered freedmen's communities. Our 6.2-mile walk first traces the area settled in 1865 by Thomas Kincheon, a formerly enslaved man from Mississippi. In the decades leading up to Austin’s 1928 city plan which cut off utilities and displaced Black residents to segregated East Austin, the area sustained a diverse mix of Black, Hispanic, and Anglo families. As noted in a Texas Historical Commission marker by Paisano and Brodie, Kincheon’s children are remembered in the names of area streets: Blumie, Elijah, and Minnie.
The residential portion of our walk continues past ranch-style houses in formerly unincorporated farmland in the Brodie Lane, Woodstone Village, and Maple Run neighborhoods which the city annexed mostly in the 1970s. We’ll cool off in the shady Preserve, passing oak groves and old stone fences along a “spaghetti factory” of trails reputedly carved out by motorcycles during a civilizationally wilder era.
LOGISTICS:
- 8 AM start, on our Summer schedule
- We’ll meet by the small parking lot in Longview Neighborhood Park at 7609 Longview Rd. It’s a tiny lot, but there’s an abundance of nearby street parking
- As always, we’ll look for a brunch/lunch place for an optional post-walk meal
- Official walk map
13 attendees
Past events
24
