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Since my last post, the "Old Cardboard" Smthwick site has gone inactive Pity, that was a phenomenal resource, hope it comes back up.

Anyhoo, not as user-friendly, but available here...

When I left off, Smithwick had just arrived at the Guadalupe River...

http://books.google.com/books?id=8-..._r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false



Driving this route was an impulse deal, and I had not done any prior study or brung any means of accessing the 'net. Therefore I had no idea where the old Camino Real crossed tbe Guadalupe, I was thinking the road veered further east, maybe crossing the river below New Braunfels.

My thinking was this, in New Braunfels there are a set of springs called Comal Springs which give rise to maybe a two mile stretch of river (Comal River) that empties into the Guadalupe. My thinking is that Smithwick probably crossed below the Comal, but in all my years here I had never really explored that pretty town, tho it lies only about an hour away.

Accessing these two waterways aint as easy as you might think. This is Texas and, as always, most of these waterways wind between private land. So while I could FInd 'em easily enough, FOLLOWING them was a whole 'nother deal entirely.

First, a study in springs.

Just below that bridge (Hidebrand Ave.) lies the main San Antonio Spring, headwaters of the San Antonio River (above that the same channel forms an intermitted stream - Olmos (Elm) Creek). As you'll note, the springs have fallen on hard times, three million people drawing on that same aquifer will do that...



As previously stated, much of the present San Antonio River within the city limits comes from a well in the Zoo. In recent years that has been limited due to high E. coli levels in that water, nowadays the difference is made up with recycled sewage treatment plant water. Not a public health issue, but high in nitrates and phosphates with the attendant plant and algae growth that accompany that, as seen here just below the zoo....




So much so that they have to chemically control algae along the river walk proper.

A couple of miles away lies the other great San Antonio spring of days gone by.. San Pedro Springs...



Used to be San Pedro Springs fed a famous, clear pond, a classic swimming hole, and the most likely spot for a fictional Gus and Clara to pitch woo as recounted in Lonesome Dove. Turns out the dwindling pool was finally closed to the public in the 1940's on account of it had gone stagnant due to reduced spring flow, the pool being filled in.

In the nineties the city did a bang-up job of digging out and recreating the old spring-fed water hole, except using city water, note the original bald cypresses, still in place



An idea of what these two springs, and thus the San Antonio River, formerly were like can be seen by observing tbe Comal....





Seen here flowing clear and swift between high dollar condos and homesites. Crystal clear water, an even 78F all year round.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Sharpshin/frontierfolk/smith29.jpg[/img]

Comal Springs persists the way it does largely on account of endangered species protection limiting water use by San Antonio in times like the severe drought we are currently in.

Used to be that any landowner could draw all they wanted, and as San Antonio grew, New Braunfels and San Marcos found themselves faced with being left high and dry. An independent landowner south of San Antonio brough the matter to a head, his randomly-dug well hitting a main artery in the aquifer and causing an immediate and enormous drain.

The State put THAT guy on hold by denying him a wastewater permit to discharge the flow into the Medina River, forcing him to cap the well. Shortly thereafter the Endangered Species Act and the threat of Federal action was the club used by the state to put the aquifer in the public domain.

Birdwatcher