If you haven't been to the State Cemetery in a while, you owe yourself a visit. It holds intrinsic fascination, all the more so since its recent renovation. Appalled by the site's neglected condition, the late former lieutenant governor Bob Bullock initiated the extensive makeover in 1997. His vision was for children to learn more about Texas history with one trip to the Cemetery than they would in a whole school semester. That goal is handily realized on these 18 acres, with features modern and ancient.

A plethora of improvements enhance the Cemetary. Served by its own state highway, the grounds boast innovative gateway arches, one of which contains a columbarium, or burying wall. Curving paved paths connect the various sections of the Cemetery, allowing visitors pleasant and convenient walking all around the spacious setting.

Parking is offered in spaces off Navasota Street, the plot's west boundary between 7th and 11th streets. Once afoot, you are drawn through a gap in the visitor center's two limestone buildings. If they appear similar to a fortress, it's because the exterior was modeled after the Alamo's Long Barrack. The center provides the best introduction to the site's many areas. Within it are research facilities, offices, and interpretive exhibits on other Texas cemeteries. In a splendid example of recycling, limestone blocks that formerly supported Confederate headstones make up the exhibit wing's interior walls.

Once outside the visitor center, the next view is of the Crescent Pond and its recirculating feeder stream that doubles as runoff control. Designed for quiet reflection, the banks of this aquatic paradise are lined with massive boulders brought in from San Saba and endemic plants. In fact, all of the Cemetary's new landscaping consists of native botany. Beyond the pond is the Hilltop, which is made of dirt and rocks dredged from the waterway, and which offers a commanding view of the downtown skyline.

But more notable than the new vegetation is what's beneath: heroes and statesmen from 148 years of tumultuous Texas events. Modeled after the U. S. national graveyard, this is the official place to be buried if you have been great either politically or militarily, or married to someone who was.

The first grave was General Edward Burleson's, an important Republic of Texas figure, who died in 1851. The land that became the Cemetery had been owned by Andrew Jackson Hamilton, then a state Representative and later the governor who frequented Hamilton Pool. Oddly enough, the much-respected Hamilton isn't buried here, but the much-reviled Reconstruction governor Edmund J. Davis is. Moreover, Davis' monument is the tallest on the grounds.

Other ironies rise to the surface as you begin strolling. For instance, Robert Potter, an early patriot and legislator, has a monument, but he's not buried here or anywhere else. His body was never recovered from Caddo Lake in Northeast Texas after his 1842 murder.

One of the South's greatest Civil War figures, Texas General Albert Sidney Johnston, perished at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. Subjected to an unquiet journey home, his body was delayed by the Union capture of New Orleans, where he lay until 1866, when he was finally reinterred at the State Cemetery. Elizabet Ney's recumbent sculpture of the general lies above the gravesite encircled by a spear-point fence.

Union casualties were buried here for a brief time until they were transferred to a federal cemetery in San Antonio. By far the majority of graves belongs to Texas Confederate soldiers and their wives, many of whom lived out their final days in two Confederate homes in downtown Austin.

The long list of reburials continues with Stephen F. himself (moved from Brazoria County in 1910), Georgia's Joanna E. Troutman (the "Betsy Ross of Texas," who never came here alive), and Louis W. Kemp, an oil company executive who was responsible for most of the other reinterments prior to Texas' 1936 Centennial. He was relocated to here in 1956.

Two of Texas' literary giants slumber here as well. Walter Prescott Webb, the eminent historian and writer, died in a car wreck in 1963. His friend and colleague J. Frank Dobie, who brought Texas folklore to the printed page, lies close by. Governor John Connally, whose proclamations allowed many of these burials, is also here.

In a nod to cultural diversity, the Plaza de los Recuerdos memorializes non-anglo Texans buried elsewhere. Its curving stone wall displays 31 tablets with names and quotes from Texas Native Americans, Hispanics, and Blacks. In the center is a grand fountain, and round its periphery grow indigenous giant Muhly and brushy bluestem grasses.

Other parks may be larger, but none claims so much history in such a small space. Other states have their heroes, but ours call Austin home. A visit to the State Cemetery honors its residents and, in some small part, returns the favor.

Located between Navasota and Comal, 7th and 11th streets. Grounds open seven days a week, 8 to 5; Visitor Center open 8 to 5 Monday through Saturday. Guided tours for groups smaller than 40 are available with advance notice. 463-0605.