Shoal Creek is a stream and an urban watershed in Austin, Texas, United States.
Shoal Creek has its headwaters near The Domain and runs in a southerly direction, soon reaching the intersection of Texas State Highway Loop 1, locally known as "MoPac Expressway" or simply "MoPac," and Highway 183. It continues south, partly along Shoal Creek Boulevard and Lamar Boulevard, through the western part of downtown Austin to its end at Lady Bird Lake.
Shoal Creek is the largest of Austin’s north urban watersheds, encompassing approximately 8,000 acres (12.9 square miles). About 27% of the watershed is over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. Its length is approximately 11 miles. It runs parallel to and between Waller Creek to its east and Johnson Creek to its west.
The creek is notable for its links to the history of Texas and Austin, its floods, and its scenery and parks just a few minutes from the Texas Capitol.
Course and tributaries
Shoal Creek has its origin on the west side of MoPac, with two springs, one called MCC/UT Spring and the other reportedly without a name. It runs eastward from there, crossing MoPac, and then enters a culvert that runs south. It then turns into a swampy area at MoPac and 183, and goes under 183 through a culvert, and Shoal Creek Boulevard begins to follow the course of the creek on its west side.
About a mile or more later, the creek crosses Anderson Lane and the Spicewood Springs/Foster Branch joins it from the west.
Perhaps a mile farther, the creek goes to the west of Beverly S. Sheffield Northwest Park, which is an important flood control facility, and it is joined from the west by the outflow from the Great Northern Dam, which is another one of the City of Austin’s Watershed Protection Department’s flood control projects. A minor tributary runs through the park from the east. At the downstream end of the park, Shoal Creek Boulevard crosses the creek and the street now follows the creek on the east side.
More than 2 miles later, north of 45th Street, the Hancock Branch, which has already been joined by the Grover Tributary, enters from the east. This is the largest tributary of Shoal Creek and drains about 2 square miles of residential areas, the Brentwood, Abercrombie and Crestview neighborhoods.
When the creek reaches 38th Street, Shoal Creek Boulevard ends, and the output of two springs enters the creek: the Beth Israel Temple Spring, just north of 38th, and Seiders Springs, just south. The year-round output of these springs creates a permanent pond north of 34th Street, which is the home of terrapins and fish.
The creek now heads southeast to Lamar Boulevard, which it follows on the west for the next two miles. Big Boulder Spring, just south of 29th Street, is the next permanent source of creek water. There is also a seep or spring on the other side of Lamar Boulevard that drains into the creek through a culvert.
Near 14th Street the creek goes under Lamar Boulevard and runs to the east of it for the rest of its course. At about 5th Street the creek makes a nearly right-angle bend to the east. The downtown part of the creek is channeled and many downtown streets run over it on bridges. Near 4th Street, the “lost” tributary, Little Shoal Creek, joins the main stream from the east. Little Shoal Creek was completely covered over by downtown development in 1917
At Third Street, the creek flows under the historic Third Street Railroad Trestle.
The creek flows into Lady Bird Lake (the Colorado River) between Nueces Street and West Avenue, after running past the Central Branch of the Austin Public Library.
The difference in elevation from its source to its mouth is approximately 320 feet.
History
Arrowheads and other artifacts indicate that Native Americans occupied the Shoal Creek watershed 11,400 years ago. There are also stories of attacks by the native people on early settlers. One Gideon White, who lived at Seiders’ Springs before the Seiders family settled there, was killed near his home in 1842 by a band of Native Americans. A Mrs. Sarah Hibbins, who had been captured by natives when crossing the Colorado River in 1836, escaped them by night and followed the channel of Shoal Creek back to the Colorado, where she obtained help. Her two children, or perhaps only one of them, were rescued but her husband had already been killed. At that time, the village that would become Austin was called Dewitt’s Colony.
There is supposed to be a Native American burial mound “near the old McCall Spring just west of the street now called Balcones Trail.” Neither the spring nor the street exist now by those names.