Lost Pines Guide › Knowledge base

What are the towns of Bastrop County?

Bastrop, Elgin, Smithville, Cedar Creek and the smaller communities - where they are and what is in them.

Bastrop County is bigger and more spread out than people expect, and which town you are in changes what is available within a short drive.

• Bastrop — the county seat, on the Colorado River. Main Street is the historic commercial centre; the Highway 71 strip east of it is where almost all the chain retail sits, including the county's only H-E-B plus!, Home Depot, Lowe's and Best Buy.
• Elgin — the north of the county, on US 290 toward Austin. Has its own H-E-B, Walmart and the county's Ace Hardware, plus an Austin Community College campus.
• Smithville — south-east, on the river. The full-size grocer is Brookshire Brothers. Its downtown has been used as a filming location often enough to be recognisable to people who have never been.
• Cedar Creek — west toward Austin, and the address of the county's largest resort.
• McDade, Paige, Red Rock, Wyldwood — smaller communities where the nearest shop is very often a Dollar General, which is a real fact about rural Texas rather than a complaint.

School district boundaries do not follow town lines here — see the schools section for which district covers what, and confirm any attendance zone with the district before it matters to you.

Terms on this page

County seat

The town where county government sits. Bastrop, in this case.

Lost Pines

The isolated stand of loblolly pine around Bastrop, separated from the main East Texas pine belt.

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