Mount Bonnell, a limestone height rising 775 feet above sea level, was named for George W. Bonnell, who came to Texas in 1836 to fight for Texas independence, served as commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Republic of Texas under President Sam Houston, moved to Austin in 1839, published the Texas Sentinel in 1840, joined the Texan-Santa Fe expedition in 1841, was captured but released in time to join the Mier expedition in 1842, and was killed in camp on the Rio Grande on Dec. 26, 1842. In 1839 frontiersman W.A.A. "Bigfoot" Wallace killed an Indian he met face to face while crossing a narrow ledge 50 feet above the river, and he also took refuge in a Mount Bonnell cave to recover from "flux" but was gone so long that his sweetheart eloped. In the mid-1800's Mormons built a mill on the Colorado River at the foot of Mount Bonnell, but a flood destroyed it and they moved farther west. Mount Bonnell was also a site of picnics and outings in the 1850's and 1860's, and legend says an excursion there in the 1850's inspired the popular song "Wait for the Wagon and We'll All Take a Ride." In 1898, as a stunt, Miss Hazel Keyes slid down a cable stretched from the top of Mount Bonnell to the south bank of then Lake McDonald below.