Why Austin Became the Capital of Texas

In 1838, Republic of Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar visited the area while on a buffalo-hunting trip. He pushed to move the capital there from Houston. In 1839, a commission chose a site on the north bank of the Colorado River. The place was then called Waterloo. It was renamed Austin, after Stephen F. Austin, and platted as a 640-acre city.

The move was controversial. In 1842, with Mexican forces raiding deep into Texas, President Sam Houston moved the government out of Austin, but Austin residents blocked his attempt to haul off the official archives — the so-called Archives War. When Texas joined the United States in 1845, Austin was confirmed as the state capital, and it has stayed that way.