Seiders Oaks - Austin, TX
N 30° 18.361 W 097° 44.866
14R E 620407 N 3353359
A grove of Texas Live Oak trees known as Seiders Oaks line the banks of Shoal Creek near the Sutton Medical Center Austin. The historic oaks cover the creek's banks and surround the hiking trails in Shoal Creek Park.
Waymark Code: WMZGAB
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 11/07/2018
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The history of the Seiders Oak grove and the Seiders Springs begins in 1839 when Gideon White move to the newly settled area around Austin, TX. White chose a homestead along this part of Shoal Creek and build his log cabin and began rearing his family. By 1842, he was settled in and was out searching for one of his strayed cows when he as attacked by a band of marauding Indians. Like any pioneer frontiersman, he fought back and took cover in this grove of Live Oak trees. He killed at least one of his attackers before he was killed.
Four years after Gideon White's death, his daughter, Louisa Maria White married Lee Edward Seiders, who was an entrepreneur in Austin, operating several businesses there. For a while, the couple lived in the same log cabin her father had built. Over time Edward Seiders had become popular enough to have the oak grove and nearby spring referred to by the local Austin residents as Seiders Oaks and Seiders Spring. Part of this may be due to the Seiders developing the grove, spring and creek area into a sort of tourist attraction by building bath houses, picnic areas, and dance pavilions. The trees, the spring and the location names have survived. In 1865 General George Custer camped his cavalry unit in the Seiders Oaks.
There is a Texas historical marker among the Seiders Oaks that reads:
"Site of 1839 home and 1842 massacre of Gideon White. A daughter, Louisa wed (1846) Edward Seiders, for whom oaks are names." See waymark WM8K0N: (
visit link)
The Seiders Oaks are presently part of the Seiders Springs Greenbelt, a linear city park with Shoal Creek Trail pathways for walking, biking or jogging passing by and through this area. The Seiders Oaks are located on the west bank of Shoal Creek, between 34th Street and 38th Street. They are between the Shoal Creek Hospital and the Sutton Medical Center Austin.
The street address of 1380 W 34th St., Austin, TX will get you to the part of the park where the trees are.