Austin Found Podcast

Austin never experienced the race riots or other major racial violence of other American cities in the late 20th century, but its road from segregation to civil rights was marked instead by steady, valiant leadership from some pioneers whose names should be better remembered. They were opposed by some people whose names should be remembered for other, less admirable reasons.

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It’s not obvious to the fresh newcomer, but Austin is a border town. It lies on the boundary between the wet farmlands and forests of the East and the dry ranch lands and scrub hills of the West, and a lot of the city’s culture is derived from that contrast, as well as its position between the Catholic and Lutheran South and the Baptist and Methodist North of Texas.

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You’ve heard of Sergeant York, the most decorated American veteran of World War I. After all they made a hit movie with Gary Cooper as York. But what about Private “Buck” Simpson, an Austin cedar chopper and the second most decorated American veteran from that war? Turns out, he was a character in a family of Central Texas characters.

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“We’ve been here before. In 1918, city officials shuttered Austin for almost a month during the worst pandemic in modern times. We look at how folks are responding locally to the coronavirus crisis and what they can learn from the past."

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There was a time, not long ago, when all African-American police officers in Austin served on a separate and definitely not equal East Austin squad patrolling East 11th and 12th streets, mostly on foot. Officers Mal Wiley, Leonard Flores and Ernie Hinkle all served during the 1950s and ‘60s when Austin was a very different city. And they tell their engrossing police stories from very different perspectives.

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One of the most spectacular fish kills in history hit the Colorado River in 1961 was traced to an East Austin “insect powder” factory. Green activist Rachel Carson told the basic story in “Silent Spring,” but it has been lost to popular memory even as Austin became an environmental mecca. Until now.

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What were once were Native American trails are now boulevards and freeways. We can trace the routes taken by Tonkawas, Apaches and Comanches, as well as Spanish, German, Anglo-American and African-American pioneers in Central Texas and how they became the modern roads we know so well.

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Do you love Austin as much as we do? Find out how it became the city it is today via Austin Found, a podcast from journalist and history buff Michael Barnes and radio personality J.B. Hager. They share the stories behind the stories about the people, places, culture and history of the inimitable Texas capital.

This episode is an introduction of  what to expect from this show. 

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