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Barton Springs

Topic 24 · 8 responses · archived october 2000
» This is an archived thread from 2000. Want to pick up where they left off? post in the live Austin conference →
~terry seed
Barton Springs is Austins' great watering hole. Year round cool water in an enormous pool in the middle of town. This community is named for Barton Springs partly, although the name is also partly a play on the WELL.
~terry #1
Did you know that Barton Springs is the fourth largest spring in Texas? It's behind Comal, San Marcos, and San Felipe springs. It was called Zilker Springs in the past. Issuing through a fault in the Edwards and associated limestones, they are a chain of large artesian springs extending from Del Rio to Belton in the Balcones fault zone. An old commanche indian trail from Bandera county to Nacogdoches (can you say that, dare you!) passed Barton Springs. They were a popular gathering place for Tonkawa, Apache, and Commanche indians and for their ancestors for thousands of years before that. Three Spanish missions were located at the springs from 1730 to 1731. In 1839 the five commissioners named to select a site for the capital of Texas described the springs as "perhaps the greatest and the most convenitient water power to found in the Republic" In 1837 William Barton settled at the springs naming two of them for his daughters. A gristmill was built. (to be continued)
~legaffe #2
Really, tell us more!
~terry #3
I'll be posting more!
~aschuth #4
Well, guess you never got around to do it. What kind of water is that? Fresh sweet water? In my area, we have a lot of salty and even sulfuric springs, some are even really warm, some are cold. Definitely mineral waters! (I think I posted more on this somewhere else, only forgot where...)
~terry #5
Fresh and very sweet.
~aschuth #6
Does Austin area have any salty or other mineral springs?
~KitchenManager #7
not exactly...
~aschuth #8
...?
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