Yegua Knobbs Preserve (continued)

Some of the highest points between Temple and the Gulf Coast, the Yegua Knobbs form part of the divide between the Colorado and Brazos River drainages.  Numerous seeps and springs originate on this tract, as they do on other tracts elsewhere around the Knobbs.  The most famous of the area’s springs, located just north of YKP on the highest of the Knobbs, lent its name to the community of Knobbs Springs in Lee County. 

The area has been occupied for over 4500 years by prehistoric bands attracted to the plentiful water and game.  Historically, the area was first settled at the time of the Civil War by the Wends, who also founded the nearby community of Serbin.  Knobbs Springs grew to 300 people by the turn of the century, with three churches and two cotton mills.  The town flourished up until the First World War.  The community still attends the Knobbs Springs Baptist Church, founded in 1860.  A stagecoach line from Houston to Austin ran through the area.   The construction of a railroad line through McDade in the 1870s-1880s brought an influx of workers to the area, and the money they made and spent tempted outlaws who haunted the Knobbs to rob and murder some workers.  The banditry culminated in a Christmas Day shootout at McDade in 1883. 

The Bastrop County portion of the tract sits within potential Houston toad habitat as designated by the USFWS in 2000.  On most of the property, little additional effort is needed to manage toad populations.  With the assistance of the National Wildlife Federation, one large pond in a grazed area has been fenced and gated to exclude cattle during the toad breeding season.