The Stone Grove

This is a historical account about a group of very early settlers in the Texas Hill Country. They settled in a natural clearing located just west of the watercourse that would eventually bear William Barton's family surname, in Travis County, Texas. They'd arrived sometime after the Spanish missionaries but before William Barton and his family moved near the springs around 1835. The closest guess we have is that they arrived in Mexican-controlled Texas around the 1800s before any Anglo settlers had been granted formal approval to settle by the Mexican government. These hearty frontiersmen and women, hunters, trappers, cattlemen, and settlers, were mostly of Irish descent, part of the very first diaspora of Irish immigrants - which would peak later in the 1820s. There were several German families among them, according to sparse accounts, but all spoke an Irish dialect from what we can tell. 

According to what little records that still exist, this 'Stone Grove' clearing has always existed. If one examines satellite images, the clearing exists as far back as images are available - however, the unique surface rock formations tend to drift about the clearing. What we have read in historical accounts and can see from current satellite imagery is that nothing seems to grow well in this spot. These early settlers, pragmatists they were, decided that the barren ground would make a great livestock stockade. They called it the Stone Grove due to all the exposed rocks, baked in the sun.  

The settlers built the walls of the stockade high, with stone and cedar, to keep out the many predators of the time - red wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, and even black bears. After the stockade was complete and the settlement's small herd of goats, sheep, and cattle were moved into the space the animals in the stockade began to go missing. It was noted that none of the animals showed any fear of the space, and in fact the authors of the accounts we've found made special note of the fact that the place seemed to have a calming, almost lulling effect on their livestock. This tranquility hid a chilling truth, that something seemed to be actively calming the animals down before they'd be taken. The settlers were unable to determine how the animals were being killed and hauled out of the stockade's high cedar and stone fences. Many of the livestock that lived through the nights would have bite marks from no animal they’d ever seen. These are accounts from frontiersmen, to be sure, who had seen the worst of men and beasts of the time - and they were unable to explain the disappearance or the injuries to the surviving animals. In response to these disturbing losses, the settlers started posting guards to watch their stockade. Nothing was ever seen by any of the guards throughout the night even though the animals kept disappearing. As the number of livestock started to dwindle the settlement decided they may not be able to handle the situation on their own. 

The next action of the settlement's leadership is why we even have this tale to tell. They sent a boy, no older than 15, to locate the displaced residents of the nearby San Jose' de los Nazonis Mission - who had been chased from the mission by French skirmishers but had remained in the area, albeit with a smaller force. It took the boy a few weeks to find the ex-missionaries and bring them back to his settlement. These remaining ex-missionaries were hunters, trackers, and trappers of renown and would certainly be able to figure out these mysterious disappearances.   

The boy and rescuers upon arriving, immediately noted the silence of the previously busy small settlement. All the livestock had all been taken. Furthermore, to their horror, there were no settlers left at the site. The tents and rough outbuildings were all complete, and nothing was disturbed. All they found outside of the homes were items a person would hold in their hands - rough cups, a tobacco pipe, hats, shoes - dropped carelessly around and in the Stone Grove. The most disturbing aspect of the account of the hunters and trackers was that many footprints seemed to have been calmy walking towards the stockade. It appeared that the whole settlement had, in one or two days, calmly walked themselves into the Stone Grove and vanished into the broken and scattered limestone of the circle. They could only assume that they'd met the same fate as the animals that had been taken in the previous months

In desperation, the boy and would-be rescuers decided to pile stones from the stockage and grove to hopefully ward off whatever was lurking in the dark. They piled the largest mound at the base of the single oak tree - the only thing that had ever prospered in the clearing -  hoping to keep whatever haunted these woods from reaching beyond. 

Over the years, the stones in the circle seem to re-arrange themselves. Mounds, and shapes, always seem to pivot around what we assume is the original pile of stones the boy and missionaries piled in fear. 

People who hike here alone sometimes say they hear the scraping of rocks as if something inside these mounds is trying to claw its way out, moving the rocks - trying to figure out how to unlock the magic the boy and the missionaries stumbled upon that managed to lock the darkness in place. And on still nights, if you listen closely, you might hear whispers calling out names. The names are often old, Native American, Old Spanish, German, or Irish. The only names people seem to recognize are biblical, but many are very difficult to hear - they sound like wind in dead corn. 

If you are hiking alone in the Barton Creek Wildnerness and find yourself in a circle of stone, move on quickly. And if you hear your name... don't turn around and no matter what you do - don’t answer back.