Alex Valdes dives into Barton Springs Pool on Sunday, July 26, 2026 in Asutin.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
How much do you really know about the Live Music Capital of the World and so-called birthplace of breakfast tacos? Is Barton Springs actually 68 degrees all the time? And where did all those bats come from?
There’s a lot of lore surrounding Austin, but five of the things you think you know and love about the city may not be 100% factual.
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Swimmers queue at the diving board before jumping into the cool waters of Barton Springs Pool as temperatures reached the mid-90s in Austin on Monday, July 6, 2026. Austin could see its first 100-degree day later this week.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Here are the real stories behind Barton Springs’ famously chilly water, Austin’s Live Music Capital of the World title, the Congress Avenue Bridge bats, the “I love you so much” mural and the breakfast taco.
Is Barton Springs really 68 degrees year-round?
Ask an Austinite about Barton Springs Pool and there’s a good chance they’ll tell you the water stays at a steady 68 degrees.
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That’s close — but not quite right.
Michael Markowski, a senior environmental scientist with Austin Watershed Protection, analyzed 20 years of city data and found the pool’s average temperature is 70.3 degrees. Springs generally reflect average air temperatures, and Austin’s average is around 70 degrees, he said.
The Austin skyline is visible above Barton Springs Pool on Sunday, July 26, 2026.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Even that 70-degree figure is only an average. On July 28, city data showed temperatures ranging from 71.5 to 77.8 degrees. The shallowest areas had the greatest variation because of sun exposure, while temperatures were most consistent near the spring opening in the pool’s deep center.
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Markowski said significant temperature swings are uncommon without large amounts of rainfall because of the enormous volume of water in the Edwards Aquifer, which feeds the pool.
So, 68 degrees? Not exactly. Consistently cold? That’s much closer.
How Austin became the Live Music Capital of the World
“Live Music Capital of the World” isn’t just a cute nickname. The Austin City Council voted on the slogan in 1991, and the name was trademarked seven years later, so no other city can claim the title.
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But the idea started with a sign.
Olivia Rodrigo returned to Austin City Limits Live for a TV taping at the venue on Wednesday July 29, 2026.
Scott Newton/Provided by Austin City Limits
Former Austin Music Commission Chair Nancy Coplin said Lillian Standfield passed an “Austin City Limits” sign while entering Austin in 1991 and called Coplin with an idea: Austin should have a sign declaring it the “Music Capital of Texas.”
Coplin began brainstorming and asked city staff member Bob Meyer to determine which city had the most music venues per capita. Austin came out on top, she said.
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Coplin and then-City Council Member Max Nofziger settled on “Live Music Capital of the World.” It could have been “Live Music Capital of the Universe,” Coplin recalled, but that raised an obvious problem: How exactly would you define music on Mars?
Although comparing the number of music venues in every city is difficult, tourism websites and U.S. Census data indicate Austin has more live music venues per capita than Nashville, Tennessee, known as Music City.
“I would like to encourage everybody to go out and support Austin musicians,” Coplin said. “If you don’t have to pay a cover charge at the door, give a big tip. And even if you do have to pay a cover charge, give a tip.”
Why are there so many bats in Austin?
Mexican free-tailed bats have lived in the Austin area for thousands of years. Their relationship with the city’s human residents hasn’t always been friendly.
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A 1984 Statesman headline declared, “Bat colonies sink teeth into city.”
Four years earlier, the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge had been expanded — and the construction inadvertently created an ideal bat habitat.
A crowd of people watch as Mexican free-tailed bats exit the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge in August 2017. No cases of white-nose syndrome has been detected in Travis County yet. [TAMIR KALIFA/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]
Austin American-Statesman
Concrete slabs formed deep, narrow, temperature-controlled crevices high enough to keep the bats relatively undisturbed by humans, said Mylea Bayless, chief engagement officer at Bat Conservation International. Trees along the river also provide protection from predators as the bats emerge to feed each evening.
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During the summer, after mating season, the bridge is home to about 1.5 million bats, making it the world’s largest urban bat colony, according to “Guide to Austin Architecture.”
Dr. Merlin Tuttle founded Bat Conservation International in Wisconsin in 1982. After learning about Austin’s uneasy relationship with its bats, he moved the organization’s efforts to the city. Its headquarters remain here.
“It was kind of an epiphany for him,” Bayless said. “‘If I can turn this around, if I can change the trajectory of what’s happening in Austin and get the city of Austin and the people of Austin to understand that bats are really our allies and they’re good to have around instead of this big, scary thing, then that proves my point, validates the whole reason that I created [BCI].”
Tuttle launched a public relations campaign emphasizing bats’ role in eating pests and their importance to crops including corn and cotton.
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Today, crowds gather around sunset to watch the bats pour out over the Colorado River. A small economy has grown around the nightly spectacle, from paid parking and street performers to boat tours offering views from the water.
Austin Bat Refuge posts nightly emergence estimates on its website.
Austin’s ‘I love you so much’ mural has a New York connection
One of Austin’s most photographed murals started as a love note — but its inspiration came from New York.
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Ames Tedford, formerly known as Amy Cook, said during Tiny Talks Austin that the words “I love you so much” stuck with him after he saw them tagged in Manhattan while walking with his girlfriend at the time.
Six years later, in 2010, Tedford spray-painted the phrase on the side of Jo’s Coffee on South Congress Avenue for his girlfriend, who was a part-owner of the coffee shop.
Cody Dye and Julia Hansen, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, take a selfie in front of the “I Love You So Much” mural at Jo’s Coffee on South Congress Avenue on Valentine’s Day Friday February 14, 2025. The iconic mural, created by Amy Cook in 2010, was the backdrop for many people expressing their love for each other on Valentine’s Day.
Jay Janner/American-Statesman
He didn’t expect the message to become an Austin landmark. But people began taking pictures in front of it about 10 minutes after it went up, he said.
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“It grew in popularity as Austin grew,” Tedford said. “At first it was just people in the neighborhood, and then it just got wider as Austin exploded.”
Tedford and the woman who inspired the mural are no longer together, but he said he doesn’t associate the artwork with her.
“It evolves as I evolve,” he said. “When I see ‘I love you so much,’ I think of me.”
Tedford now works at a nonprofit in hospice and social work and makes music under the name Amy Cook.
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Did Austin invent the breakfast taco?
Austin and San Antonio have spent years arguing over which city deserves credit for the breakfast taco.
The answer may be neither.
Breakfast tacos at Pueblo Viejo food truck at Meanwhile Brewing Company in Austin, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
The modern debate intensified in 2016 after Matthew Sedacca published an Eater article titled “How Austin Became the Home of the Crucial Breakfast Taco,” prompting a fresh round of rivalry between Austin and San Antonio.
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But CNN’s “A short history of the long fight over breakfast tacos” traced the food’s likely origins to Mexico.
On “Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico,” Longoria said breakfast tacos in Monterrey have fed workers for nearly a century. Workers at an iron and steel foundry needed a quick morning meal, she said, helping give rise to the breakfast taco.
Texas Monthly taco editor José Ralat has also credited Mexico with creating the breakfast taco.
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And Austin wasn’t even the first U.S. city where the term appeared in print. An OC Weekly account found references to “breakfast taco” in at least four newspapers in San Antonio and Nevada during the 1970s before the term appeared in connection with an Austin restaurant in Texas Monthly.
Austin may fiercely love the breakfast taco. It just can’t claim to have invented it.