Mount Bonnell

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Mount Bonnell
View from the summit of  Mount Bonnell, Austin, Texas
View from the summit of Mount Bonnell
Type City Park
Location Austin, Texas, USA
30°19′16″N 97°46′25″W / 30.3210°N 97.7736°W / 30.3210; -97.7736Coordinates: 30°19′16″N 97°46′25″W / 30.3210°N 97.7736°W / 30.3210; -97.7736
Size 5.36 acres (2.17 ha)
Opened 1972 (1972)
Operated by City of Austin Parks Department
Status Open all year
Website Austin Parks Foundation

Mount Bonnell (pronounced /bəˈnɛl/), also known as Covert Park, is a prominent point alongside Lake Austin in Austin, Texas. It has been a popular tourist destination since the 1850s.[1][2] The mount provides a vista for viewing the city of Austin, Lake Austin, and the surrounding hills.[3]

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[edit] Geography

Mount Bonnell is located at 30.3210°N, 97.7736°W (WGS 84 datum). Although the mount is often described as the highest point in Austin, the elevation at its peak (about 780 feet above mean sea level (AMSL)) is less than that of the Jollyville Plateau (max. elevation about 1100 feet AMSL [1]).

[edit] Origin of the name

Mount Bonnell was named after early Texas newspaper publisher George W. Bonnell,[4] who moved to Texas in 1836. George W. Bonnell was publisher of the local paper The Texas Sentinel and was prominent in early Texas and Travis County (Austin) affairs.[5]

Legend has it that Mount Bonnell was once called Antoinette's Leap, after a young woman who leaped to her death to avoid capture from Native Americans that killed her fiancé.[4]

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