San Antonio Springs (also known as the Blue Hole) is a cluster of springs in

Bexar County Bexar County ( or ; ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in South Texas and its county seat is San Antonio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,009,324, making it the state's fourth-most populous county. Bexar County ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. These springs provide a large portion of the water for the

San Antonio River The San Antonio River is a major waterway that originates in central Texas in a cluster of springs in midtown San Antonio, about 4 miles north of downtown, and follows a roughly southeastern path through the state. It eventually feeds into the ...

, which flows from

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

. The San Pedro Springs also feed into the

Geography

The San Antonio Springs are located about three miles (5 km) north of Downtown San Antonio; most are now on the property of the

University of the Incarnate Word The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) is a private Roman Catholic university with its main campus in San Antonio and Alamo Heights, Texas. Founded in 1881 by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, the university's main campus is lo ...

in the Midtown Brackenridge district of San Antonio. The springs are fed by water from the

Edwards Aquifer The Edwards Aquifer is one of the most prolific artesian aquifers in the world. Located on the eastern edge of the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas, it is the source of drinking water for two million people, and is the primary water su ...

; this water reaches the surface through faults along the Balcones Escarpment. There have been more than 100 individual springs identified, but many of these are no longer active due to pumping demands on the Edwards Aquifer and

sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

ation from the upstream Olmos Creek, although sedimentation has been partially mitigated by the Olmos Dam since 1926. During periods of

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

, the springs sometimes stop flowing entirely, only to resume when water levels rise in the aquifer. The mean flow from the springs is 20 ft³/s (0.6 m³/s).

History

Artifacts from

Paleo-Indian Paleo-Indians were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The prefix ''paleo-'' comes from . The term ''Paleo-Indians'' applies specifically to the lithic period in ...

cultures have been found at the site of the San Antonio Springs; some of these artifacts are more than 11,000 years old. The earliest

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

ans found up to 200 sub-bands of

Coahuiltecan The Coahuiltecan were various small, autonomous bands of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans who inhabited the Rio Grande valley in what is now northeastern Mexico and southern Texas. The various Coahuiltecan groups were hunter ga ...

Indians in the vicinity of the springs; however, they were soon displaced by the

Lipan Apaches Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and no ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

built a system of aqueducts and canals to carry water from the springs to the local missions, including The Alamo. By the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, the springs had become contaminated. In 1891, artesian wells were drilled to provide clean water for the city.

Gallery

Image:SanAntonioSprings01.JPG, Image:SanAntonioSprings02.JPG, Image:SanAntonioSprings04.JPG, Image:SanAntonioSprings10.JPG, Image:SanAntonioSprings06.JPG, Image:SanAntonioSprings08.JPG, Image:SanAntonioSprings09.JPG, Image:SanAntonioSprings11.JPG,

References

External links

Information from EdwardsAquifer.net

South Central Texas Regional Water Plan
* {{San Antonio Springs of Texas Bodies of water of Bexar County, Texas Geography of San Antonio San Antonio River