Bastrop Map
Bastrop is a city and the county seat of Bastrop County, Texas, United States. Located about thirty miles southeast of Austin, it is part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. The population was 5,340 at the 2000 census. By 2007, the city had an estimated population of 7,823, twice the population of the early 1970s.
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 actually a commoner named Philip Hendrik Nering Bogel 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 he served as S.F. Austin's land commissioner.
Nearby cities include Smithville, Webberville, Elgin.