Where in Texas is Austin?

Question: Where in Texas is Austin?

Viewers of the popular sitcom King of the Hill may get a distorted view of Texas geography. The fictional town of Arlen is "a community of 10,000 in Texas, which is near Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico" and is probably located somewhere between Austin and Dallas. Regular trips to Dallas and Mexico seem to take no more than an hour or so for Hank and his friends, a time and distance distortion of Texas-size proportions.

Answer: Austin is in Central Texas but central doesn't necessarily translate to the geographical center of the state. Central Texas is south and east of center (if such an irregularly-shaped state can have an easily-identified center).

In reality, it is several hours drive from Central Texas to any major Texas city or a state border.

• Texas is big.
  Approximately 800 miles across and almost 900 miles from north to south, Texas is 267,000 square miles of land. Cities and towns within the central part of the state, including Waco, Austin, and San Antonio are many miles and hours away from major cities to the North, South, East, and West.

  Approximate driving distance (in miles) from other major Texas cities to Austin:

  North and Northwest of Austin

  • Amarillo: 478
  • Wichita Falls: 283
  • Dallas: 192
  • Fort Worth: 187

  Within Central/South Central Texas

  • Waco: 102 (North of Austin)
  • San Antonio: 79 (South of Austin)

  South and East of Austin (Texas Coastal Cities)

  • Houston: 162
  • Corpus Christi: 192
  • Galveston: 206
  • Brownsville: 325

  West of Austin

  • Fort Stockton: 335
  • El Paso: 573

• Austin is not in the Texas panhandle (that rectangular area that sticks out up in the Northwest part of the state).
  Amarillo, 478 miles from Austin, is in the Texas panhandle. The panhandle area is bordered by Oklahoma and New Mexico.

• Austin is not on the border between Texas and any other state.
  If driving in to Austin from any of its bordering states (New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana) you'll pass through quite a bit of the state. Austin is anywhere from around 300 to 500 miles from any bordering state. Plan to move here but want to go skiing in New Mexico or Colorado regularly? Expect a good long drive or plan to fly.

• Austin is not on the Texas coast.
  Houston, Galveston, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville are located along the Gulf of Mexico. Austin is about 192 miles from Corpus Christi, the closest major coastal city. Water is very important to Austin but it's the freshwater of the Colorado River, Barton Creek, Town Lake, Lake Austin, and Lake Travis, not the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico where we fish, swim, and boat.

• Austin is not on or near the Texas-Mexico border.
  Austin is approximately 230 miles from Nuevo Laredo, Saltillo, and other popular tourist sites just over the border. Although not on the border, Mexico is within reasonable driving distance.

Location and Size of Austin
County: Travis and a portion of Williamson
Region: Central Texas; Hill Country
Longitude: 97 degrees 75'W
Latitude: 30 degrees 30'N
Elevation: 597 feet
City Limits: 266 square miles extending from the north and south banks of the Colorado River