The King of Spain directed that a road be laid out connecting the various properties of Spain. The route of the Camino Real of Old San Antonio Road originated from a path where hundreds of years before the wild beasts and Red Men crossed the river, rested in the shade of the trees and climbed the hills where Bastrop now stands. They made paths through the wilderness that the Frenchmen and the Spaniard, the Priest and the Adventurer, the Soldier and the Colonist later followed. The route crossed the Colorado River near the mouth of Gills Branch, where in 1805 a small detachment of Spanish soldier (known as dragoons) were stationed to protect the crossing.

In 1827 when the Mexican flag was the symbol of authority in Texas, when Indian and Buffalo roamed through the Colorado valley and the name "Austin" applied not to a city but to a young man, the young man announced his determination to establish a town on the left bank of the Colorado River at the intersection of the Old San Antonio Road leading from Nacogdoches to Bexar (San Antonio).

Stephen F. Austin, empressario, Colonist, "Father of Texas", with the vision which distinguished his efforts to wrest Texas out of the wilderness and from Mexican administration, saw in this location the ideal site for a township. "An abundant supply of fine cedar, oak, ash and other timber is found at this spot, as also lime and other building stone, clay and sand suitable for brick making," he wrote in a letter to prospective colonists. But it was not until 1834 that the village now Chahuila and Texas was set aside four leagues of land for the townsite. Of the original four-league grant, 2,000 acres now form part of the Bastrop State Park.

While the history of the actual settlement of the township has dimmed with the years gone by, it is known there was no settlement at the San Antonio Road crossing until its occupation by the Anglo-Texans. It was simply the point at which the old military road leading from San Antonio to East Texas crossed the river. The river and the road formed the north and west boundaries of Austin's first Colony.

The application of Austin declared that the Citizens of San Antonio had requested him to make a settlement there for the protection of travelers and to check the Comanche and Tahuacano Indian raids on the town. Miguel Areiniega was appointed Commissioner of the Colony in 1830, and on June 8, 1832, formally established the town of Bastrop at the crossing of the San Antonio Road on the Colorado River.

The indian raids caused the settlement to be virtually abandoned in 1836-1839. About 1839 Bastrop was populated (a fort and a stockade was in the vicinity of the Court House). There was a two-story log house which was built in such a manner that it could be defended from attack. The house was on the bank of the Colorado Piver near the old crossing on the Colorado River. The site of the gun factory, of Civil War days, is near by.

According to history writers, it was 1829 that the first installment of Austin Colonists, headed by Marty Wells and including Bill Barton, Josiah Wilbarger and Rueben Hornsby-all famed in Travis County Historical lore-came to the the settlement.

.