WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Richard Denney

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Richard Denney? Rick Denney; Vice Chair of Travis County Historical Commission, called me about a story in my book Hudson Bend and the Birth of Lake Travis. (1) Perhaps he and I qualify as Rut Nuts. A “rut nut” is someone interested in history, particularly swales and ruts which are physical remains of old trails.______ Our online discussions included trails west of Austin made by the Comanche, the mid-century trails made by the Boy Scouts of Camp Tom Wooten and the old rail line established to deliver supplies and equipment to the Mansfield Dam being constructed (1937- 1941) At Marshalls Ford to create Lake Travis.______ Tiny trails become freeways! Insect tracks are followed by mammals small and large. Humans with their livestock make tracks into wider roads and even highways. Spanish explorers’caminos become paved roads and rail lines.______ Today Austin citizens travel an old path used by the Comanche and early settlers that became a road and a later railroad. The Indians called it the Trail Going North. Now it is our city’s South Congress Avenue and it predicted the path of the Missouri Pacific Railroad (MoPac) and our Loop 1 freeway. (2)______ Indians and early settlers shared a trail to a ford on the Colorado River located where Shoal Creek entered the river, long since covered over by Lady Bird Lake. In east Austin at MLK and Webberville Road, an old trail led to Fort Colorado where U.S. soldiers intercepted the movement of Indians in the area. It’s believed that Indians often marked these trails by modifying the trees so that they could be recognized and identified as significant by other tribesmen.______ Mount Bonnell Trail was beaten by Indians coming to trade or raid in young Austin. It has been described by Julia Lee Sinks early historian and Texas Ranger Bigfoot Wallace who lived in a rock shelter under Mt. Bonnell. (3)______ Denney tells the tale of Mrs. Simpson’s two children who were abducted by Comanche while playing near their home on Austin’s Pecan Street (6th Street) in the Shoal Creek valley. A posse followed on the trail to Mt. Bonnell then the tracks were lost. The teenaged son was ransomed and returned to tell of his sister being killed by the Indians in the Spicewood Springs area.______ There is a familiar tale of Cynthia Ann Parker, young daughter of a Texas ranch family. She was abducted and raised by the Comanche. She married a chief and later was rescued with her infant daughter who died 4 years later. Confused and angry to have been taken from her people, she resisted her new life and died a miserable woman. Her half white son became Chief Quanah Parker an important warrior leading his tribe in many battles including a final one in the Palo Dura Canon. He died (1911) on a reservation and was buried beside his mother Cynthia Ann Parker. 3/21/2021 Carole Sikes______ (1) Published by History Press, SC. in 2014 (2) Frank Brown Annals of Travis County and the city of Austin, early times to 1875, Austin History Center. (3) Michael Barnes Austin Amer. Statesman, Think Texas, Issue 60, 12/22/20.