Blowout is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Blanco County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States.

History

This community dates back to 1854 when a group of two-dozen homesteaders moved to the area from

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

and settled on the east side of Comanche Creek near Comanche Spring, about three miles below the origin of the creek. It began to grow into a community as more settlers arrived and moved upstream. The origin of the name "Blowout" is reported to be due to a bat guano explosion, when

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...

and other gases built up inside the cave and

lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...

struck its mouth. The

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

was named Blowout Cave and was located on the east side of the creek and was home to 1,000

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s. There is little trace of the community today, as only several scattered houses are located among the rocky hills. In 1875, the community had several businesses. A post office was established at Blowout that year and remained in operation until 1918. It ran through Fredericksburg to Willow City to Blowout. Mail was also delivered from nearby Burnet. There was one brief interruption when the creeks and rivers flooded due to heavy rain and when the mail carrier was arrested for "abstracting money". Settlers sold wagon loads of bat guano for

fertilizer A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...

and appeared to have ended briefly, until local rancher Frank Lacy discovered

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

in a nearby creek in 1896, thus causing a gold rush in the community.

Geography

Blowout is located northwest of Johnson City in northwestern Blanco County.

Education

Blowout is served by the

Johnson City Independent School District Johnson City Independent School District is a public school district based in Johnson City, Texas, Johnson City, Texas (United States, USA). Located in Blanco County, Texas, Blanco County, small portions of the district extend into Hays County, ...

Media

* KTSN-FM, a radio station (88.9 FM) licensed to serve Blowout.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Blanco County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas