San Antonio Springs

The major springs whose combined flows formed the San Antonio River were the San Pedro and the San Antonio.  Richard Everett provided an 1859 description:

Two rivers wind through the city [San Antonio], flowing from the living springs only a short distance beyond the suburbs. One, the San Antonio, boils in a vast volume from a rocky basin, which, environed by mossy stones and overhanging foliage, seems devised for the especial dwelling-place of nymphs and naiads. The other, the San Pedro, runs from a little pond, formed by the outgushing of five sparkling springs, which bear the same name. This miniature lake, embowered in a grove of stately elm and pecan trees, is one of the most beautiful natural sheets of pure water in the Union - so clear, that even the delicate roots of the water-lilies and the smallest pebbles may be distinctly seen.

The San Antonio Springs are located mostly on the property of Incarnate Word College near the intersection of San Pedro and Hildebrand Ave.  Originally there were over 100 springs. The largest, called the Blue Hole, issues from a deep hole and is now surrounded by an octagonal concrete wall.  A swimming pool near the Blue Hole was once fed by the Springs. Two additional large groups of Springs emerge just west of the Blue Hole.  Frederick Olmsted perceived the entire discharge of the Springs to come from the Blue Hole and he described the natural beauty of the site in 1857:

...The San Antonio Spring may be classed as the first water among the gems of the natural world.  The whole river gushes up in one sparkling burst from the earth.  It has all the beautiful accompaniments of a smaller spring, moss, pebbles, seclusion, sparkling sunbeams, and dense overhanging luxuriant foliage.  The effect is overpowering.  It is beyond your possible conceptions of a spring.  You cannot believe your eyes, and almost shrink from sudden metamorphosis by invaded nymphdom.

Locations of the various San Antonio Springs

The drainage feature upstream of Olmos Dam is known as Olmos Creek; while south of the dam the same stream channel is called the San Antonio River.

Projectile points over 11,000 years old have been found at San Antonio Springs, along with burned rock middens and other lithic debris. When the first Europeans arrived, there were as many as 200 small sub-bands of Coahuiltecan indians in the river valley. By the time Spanish explorers arrived, the Coahuiltecan indians were largely displaced by Lipan Apaches who were divided into five nations. Some historians believe Cabeza de Vaca camped at the headwaters of the San Antonio River in the 1520's, while other historians credit Alonso de Leon, a relative of Ponce de Leon, with being the first European to camp at the headwaters in 1670.

Camp of the Lipans by Theodore Genlitz, 1840's

One of the earliest known descriptions of the Indians who fished and hunted in the area was written in 1716 by Franciscan missionary Fray Antonio de San Buenaventura:

They dress themselves in tanned deerskins, and the women the same, although they are covered to the feet.
The men spend little concern on their dress, as some of them go about naked.
They take part in mitotes, or dances, when they wish to go to war or when they have attained some victory over their enemies. They do this dance as if gripped by the hands by which they suffer various abuses, and these dances are causes of the murders which they commit on each other...
Their languages are different; only by means of signs are they understood among all the nations. They are governed, and conduct their trade, with signs.
Their customs are generally the same. Some are more spirited than others. They are very warlike among themselves, and they kill one another with ease, for things of little consequence, as they steal horses or women from each other.
Yet their presence is agreeable. They are of smiling countenance and are accommodating to the padres and Spaniards. When they come to their rancherieas they freely give them what they have to eat.
They are very fond of Spanish dress. Soldiers often give them a hat, cloak, trousers, or other garment in pay for the work they do....
Learning is easy for them, and they acquire use of the Spanish language with facility.

After the Spanish established missions in Bexar, they quickly set about devising an irrigation system using spring water.  The first canal dug at the San Antonio Springs was the Alamo Madre in 1745, and it diverted water from from the east side of the headwaters just below the Springs. Until 1761 the Spanish missions utilized Spring water exclusively for all purposes.  In that year a well was dug at the Alamo as a precautionary measure against having access to the river cut off by hostile Indians.

In 1849 the City Council made the decision to sell the headwaters of the San Antonio River to generate funds to build a court house, a jail, and a school.  Lots 30 and 31, a little over 24 acres, were sold to City Alderman J. R. Sweet for $1475.  These two lots were the City's most desireable property, and became known as the "old Sweet place."  A writer of the times described them as:

...without doubt one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, places in Texas, its woodland grace and parklike beauty so heightened by the perpetual mystery of its profound and noble springs.  This is the Head of the River.  There are other fine properties in this neighborhood with exceptional water advantages and privileges, but this property was really the key to the situation, the Ojo de Agua, the birthright of the city.

By 1859 Sweet had acquired five other lots, and the entire acreage was sold in 1869 to Isabella H. Brackenridge, mother of George W. Brackenridge.  By the time of the Civil War both the shallow well at the Alamo and the Spring waters had become contaminated by outhouses and garbage.  Typhoid fever and malaria were rampant.  In 1872 George W. Brackenridge offered to sell the property along with its improvements back to the City for $50,000, but the deal fell through.  By the late 1890's Brackenridge was determined to dispose of his property, including the headwaters of the river.  Brackenridge was disturbed by recent long droughts and believed the river to be dying:

I have seen this bold, bubbling, laughing river dwindle and fade away...This river is my child and it is dying and I cannot stay here to see its last gasps...I must go.

Brackenridge sold 280 acres including the San Antonio Springs to the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word for $120,000 and in 1899 he donated 343.73 acres of land for the establishment of Brackenridge Park.

Brackenridge was partially right in his predictions about the headwaters.  Due to increasing withdrawals from the Edwards Aquifer, none of the San Antonio Springs flow today except during periods of extreme rainfall.  The River is kept alive by withdrawals of water from wells in Brackenridge Park and by discharges of recycled water.

One of the larger San Antonio Springs

In the graphic above showing the locations of the various San Antonio Springs, this is the first one to the left of the swimming pool (which has now been converted to a sand volleyball court).  The octagonal structure contains the gaping Spring opening shown in the photo below.  The photo was taken on February 17, 2001 and the Springs were flowing.  Discharge from this Spring is seen running off in the channel to the left of the structure.  Just 100 feet or so downstream, the flow joins Olmos Creek.

Spring on San Antonio River
	A spring on the banks of the San Antonio River just downstream of the main spring above, also taken when the Aquifer was at record level. There are hundreds of small springs like this that now flow only during extremely wet years.
San Antonio River bed, dry
	The bed of the San Antonio River as it usually looks. This photo was taken just a short distance downstream from the Blue Hole.
San Antonio River bed, flowing
	The same stretch of the San Antonio River near Incarnate Word College in the spring of '92, an especially wet year when many of the Springs flowed again. This photo shows the confluence of flows from the Blue Hole (above) with flows from springs scattered upstream in the Olmos Basin (entering from left). The Olmos Basin in which the City of San Antonio grew up probably had as many springs as any place in the world. They are all almost always dry now, except during extremely wet years when they reassert themselves and flow up through the slabs of buildings and into basements.
Spanish Colonial Dam
	Just a few hundred feet downstream of the River stretch shown above is Hildebrand Avenue and Brackenridge Park with it's famous swimming hole, which for many decades was a focal point for the community.  In 1996 archaeologists uncovered remnants of a Spanish colonial dam at the swimming hole.  The dam was built around 1776 to divert springwaters and streamflow from Olmos Creek down the Upper Labor acequia to irrigate San Antonio's early farmlands.  In the photo at right the head of the canal is in the upper right corner.
San Pedro Creek / San Antonio River confluence
	This is the confluence of San Pedro Creek (entering from the left) and the San Antonio River, the two streams vividly described by Richard Everett in 1859. Photo by William Hudson.