In the first half of the 20th century, Zilker was home to a police firing range. Built in 1934 near the Zilker Clubhouse along Rollingwood Drive for the Austin Police Department’s pistol marksmanship courses, the range fell into disrepair and stopped being actively used for firearms training in the mid-1970s.
This historical photo is from 1941, when the range was in active use — apparently by cowboys as well as cops.
According to this site, the chronology is:
- 1933 Original storeroom and shooting shed are constructed
- 1934 The CCC expands the central storeroom and adds restroom wings
- 1938 A masonry wall separating the skeet field and pistol range is erected, and the shed structure is extended to cover 36 shooting stations. A gabled concession addition is constructed on the south facade at an unknown date
- 2006 South addition removed and window openings are bricked in
- 2011 Covered shooting shed is demolished
- 2016 Masonry site well separating the pistol range and skeet field is demolished
Austin Rifle Club at the Zilker Range
While poking around the Austin Rifle Club Education building, ARC members Cindi and Roy found this flyer for the 1949 Ninth Annual Ada Zilker Robinson matches. Ada Zilker Robinson was the daughter or grand-daughter of the Zilker that donated the park to the city of Austin. They were held at the Zilker Park range officiated by members of ARC. There are a few old plaques from this match they found buried in one of the safes not too long ago that are related to one iteration of this match, although it’s not clear which.
Fun things to note: The entry fee per match was $1, and the protest fee, fifty cents. Returned to you if your protest was successful.
Another document they ran across was a contract between ARC and Camp Mabry from 1928 allowing Austin Rifle Club to use the ground floor of Barracks 1 as an indoor range.
