Central Texas's oldest public cemetery, containing outlaw Sam Bass's grave from the 1878 shootout with Texas Rangers and a half-acre enslaved persons' burial ground with 40–50 marked interments.
1400 Sam Bass Rd, Round Rock, TX 78681
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public cemetery, free to visit.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Mostly flat cemetery grounds with paved paths near the main entrance; the enslaved persons' burial section has uneven ground
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1850 · Sam Bass grave — killed in 1878 Texas Rangers confrontation · Designated enslaved persons' burial ground, 40–50 interments · Black Cemetery Network documentation · Historical Marker Database — designated slave burial ground · City of Round Rock historic preservation site
Round Rock Cemetery traces its origins to the 1850s, preceding the town's formal incorporation as a central Texas community. For its first two decades it served the farming families and small merchants who settled the area along Brushy Creek.
The cemetery's place in Texas history was fixed on July 21, 1878, two days after one of the state's most publicized law-enforcement confrontations. On July 19, outlaw Sam Bass and members of his gang arrived in Round Rock to scout the Williamson County Bank for a robbery. Deputy Sheriff A.W. Grimes approached the men on suspicion and was shot and killed. Texas Rangers who had been tipped to the robbery plan opened fire in the ensuing exchange; Bass was struck by multiple bullets and managed to flee on horseback before collapsing on the outskirts of town. He died on July 21, 1878 — his twenty-seventh birthday. The City of Round Rock's official historical record confirms these details. Bass was buried in the cemetery, and his marked grave became a destination for visitors within years of his death. The original wooden marker was eventually replaced by a stone monument.
Separate from the outlaw's grave, the cemetery contains a formally designated half-acre section that the Historical Marker Database and the Black Cemetery Network document as an enslaved persons' burial ground. An estimated 40 to 50 individuals are interred there. Most markers are hand-grooved limestone rocks, reflecting the material constraints under which enslaved people were buried during the antebellum and Civil War period. The section was formally designated and documented as part of broader Texas efforts to preserve and acknowledge enslaved burial sites. The Black Cemetery Network has documented the site as part of its national database of African American burial grounds.
Sources
Sam Bass died young and dramatically, and Texas oral tradition has kept his story alive in the Round Rock area for nearly 150 years. The grave itself has been marked, remarked, and vandalized across the decades — early visitors were known to chip pieces from the original wooden marker as souvenirs. The current stone monument has required protection over the years.
Paranormal accounts associated with the cemetery circulate in Texas ghost-story collections, with the most common reports describing unexplained lights near Bass's grave section at night and an occasional sense of being observed near the outlaw's plot. These accounts are informal and consistent with the kind of dark-folklore that accretes around any celebrated outlaw burial.
The enslaved persons' section of the cemetery is treated as a place of solemn history by visitors who make a point of finding it. The hand-grooved limestone markers and the understated documentation on the historical marker convey the reality of who is buried there without recourse to the ghost-story genre; the site's weight is historical rather than paranormal. The Black Cemetery Network lists it as a documented African American burial ground requiring preservation and community recognition.
Notable Entities
Visit Sam Bass's marked grave, the historical monuments to the 1878 shootout, and the adjacent half-acre enslaved persons' burial section, where hand-grooved limestone rocks mark roughly 40–50 interments. Interpretive signage is present at the grave and slave burial ground.
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