TRAVEL
presence made the area a safer place to settle,
there was a dramatic increase in the number
of residents, making the fort no longer needed
after just four years. Today, the Burnet County
Heritage Society operates the fort grounds and
museum, which are filled with thousands of
historical items.
Burnet County was founded in 1852 and
includes the Colorado, San Gabriel and
Lampasas rivers. In the 1930s, the Lower
Colorado River Authority began creating
lakes to solve the problem of flooding rivers.
By 1965, Granite Shoals Lake was renamed
Lake Lyndon B. Johnson in honor of the thenpresident,
and since then, the surrounding area
has been known as the Highland Lakes region.
One of our favorite resorts in the region,
Canyon of the Eagles, is located on the north
shore of Lake Buchanan in Burnet County.
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 157
This telescope in the Eagle Eye Observatory
at the Canyon of the Eagles resort gave us a
clear view of Saturn and its rings.
Water cut into the limestone bedrock to
create this beautiful underworld setting
in the underground caves of Longhorn
Cavern State Park in Burnet, Texas.