Austin/ Travis County EMS provides the community with ambulance services. The Travis County Sheriff's Office provides police protection. The community is within Travis County Precinct 3. Manchaca is located in District 47 of the Texas House of Representatives. As of 2011 Paul Workman represents the district. Manchaca is within District 25 of the Texas Senate. As of 2013, Donna Campbell represents the district. Manchaca is in Texas's 25th congressional district; as of 2011 Lloyd Doggett is the representative. The designated United States Postal Service office is the Manchaca Post Office at 780 West Farm to Market Road 1626 in Manchaca. History Early development around Manchaca probably stemmed from the springs in the area. Manchaca Springs are a stopping place along a portion of the Old San Antonio Road and later the Chisholm Trail. Over time there has been much conjecture as to the origin of the name "Manchaca". One school holds that "Manchaca" is derived from the Choctaw word imashaka, meaning "behind it" or "to the rear." There are two areas in Louisiana that carry that name: Manchac Pass and Bayou Manchac. However, another theory holds that Manchaca Springs was named for Tejano army officer José Antonio Menchaca. The current pronunciation of the name 'Manchaca' stems from simple Anglicization. The springs are referred to as "Manshack Springs" in a collection of memoirs written by an early Anglo settler describing life in 1840s Texas, Recollections of Early Texas: Memoirs of John Holland Jenkins. Thomas Falconer, an English explorer who passed through the area in 1841 referred to the springs as "Manjack's Springs" in his manuscripts. Early maps and newspaper articles indicate the spelling was "Manchac Springs," orthography corroborated by maps produced by noted Tejano land agent Jacob de Cordova in 1849 currently housed at the Texas General Land Office in Downtown Austin. An early owner of Manchaca Springs was Washington D. Miller, a South Carolina native who went on to serve as a Republic of Texas congressman, private secretary to Sam Houston and after Texas joined the Union, Secretary of State of Texas. The first post office to serve the area was the Manchac House post office that opened two miles south of the present-day location of Manchaca in 1851. The office closed the following year. Also in 1852, Miller negotiated the sale of the springs to Virginia native Adolphus Weir who ran a stagecoach stop on the property. Descendants of