Bastrop is a city and the county seat of Bastrop County, Texas, United States. Located about 30 mi southeast of Austin, it is part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. The population was 7,218 according to the 2010 census.
Spanish soldiers lived temporarily at the current site of Bastrop as early as 1804, when a fort was established where the Old San Antonio Road crossed the Colorado River and named Puesta del Colorado. Bastrop's namesake, Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop, was a commoner named Philip Hendrik Nering Bogel, who was wanted for embezzlement in his native country of the Netherlands. In Texas, he assisted Moses and Stephen F. Austin in obtaining land grants in Texas and served as Austin's land commissioner. In 1827, Austin located about 100 families in an area adjacent to his earlier Mexican contracts. Austin arranged for Mexican officials to name a new town there after the baron who died the same year.
Bastrop is located near the center of Bastrop County along the lower Colorado River. The downtown business district of the city is located on a bluff on the east bank of the river, but the city extends to the west side of the river, as well. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.1 square miles (23.6 km2), of which 9.0 sq mi (23.3 km2) are land and 0.12 square miles (0.3 km2), or 1.23%, is covered by water. Three miles (5 km) northeast of the town, Lake Bastrop is a 906-acre (3.67 km2) reservoir on Spicer Creek operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) since its impounding in 1964. Although primarily used as a cooling pond for the Sim Gideon Power Plant, the lake is also used for recreation, and the LCRA maintains two public parks on the lake.
