A community archive
The history of West Lake Hills, Texas.
West Lake Hills, Rollingwood, and the broader Eanes-area community. Contribute a story or photograph →
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Cedar Choppers and the Travis County Dog Wars
Before West Lake Hills was a city, the limestone ridges above the Colorado were cedar-cutting country. The families who lived there fought a long series of disputes with town hunters — the Dog Wars of 1902–1923 — that shaped the area's reputation in Austin for decades.
PODCAST
Cedar Crest Night Club
Emmett Shelton, Sr. on the changes that came to Westlake Hills in the 1930s — the end of Prohibition, the paving of Bee Cave Road, the arrival of electricity, and the rehabilitation of the old Moose Head Lodge as a Prohibition-era nightclub with Mervin Ash, the king pin of Austin gamblers.
ROAD
Bee Cave Road
The principal east-west route connecting Austin to the hill country settlements west of the Colorado River. Paved in 1931, the road's improvement opened the West Lake area to year-round travel and made the surrounding ranches viable for new businesses.
PHOTOGRAPH
Photograph of Students
COLLECTION
Eanes History Center · Westbank Community Library District
The full Eanes History Center collection — letters, oral histories, books, photographs, illustrations, and family records — donated to and held by the Westbank Community Library District. Westlake History is the official digital home for this collection.
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From the archive
Photograph
Photograph of Students
Photograph
Children in a Wagon
Photograph
Portrait of Charles R. Eanes
Illustration
Illustration of the Eanes-Marshall Home
Photograph
Eanes Rock Schoolhouse Class
Illustration
Illustration of Arch Bridge
Photograph
Group of Boy Scouts
Photograph
Students Playing in the Snow
Photograph
Eanes Elementary Class Photograph
Photograph
Eanes School Picnic
Photograph
Photograph of Students in a Wagon
Photograph
Students in a Car Trunk