| Las Moras Springs | |
|---|---|
  Location within Texas | |
| Name origin | |
| Location | Fort Clark, Brackettville, Texas |
| Coordinates | 29°18′35″N100°25′16″W / 29.3097°N 100.4211°W Coordinates: 29°18′35″N100°25′16″W / 29.3097°N 100.4211°W |
| Elevation | 1,096 feet (334 m) |
| Discharge | Daily average: 12–14 million US gallons (45×106–53×106 L) |
| Temperature | 68 °F (20 °C) |
Las Moras Springs,"The Mulberries" in Spanish, are a group of springs near Brackettville in Kinney County, Texas. [1]
A spring is a point at which water flows from an aquifer to the Earth's surface. It is a component of the hydrosphere.
Brackettville is a city in Kinney County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,876 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Kinney County. Brackettville claims it is the drive-in movie capital of Texas.
Kinney County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,598. Its county seat is Brackettville. The county was created in 1850 and later organized in 1874. It is named for Henry Lawrence Kinney, an early settler.
Las Moras Springs are located on the grounds of Fort Clark in Brackettville and were the reason for the location of the fort and the settlement there. The springs are the ninth largest group of springs in Texas, discharging an average of about 12-14 million gallons per day. They are artesian springs arising from a fault overlying the Edwards limestone. It emerges at an elevation of about 1,096 feet. [2] The springs fill a large walled-in area some of which spills into a 300-foot long swimming pool. Its excess flows into a bypass channel around the pool. Below the pool, both discharges combine and form the headwaters of the section of Las Moras Creek that flows year around to the Rio Grande. [3]
Fort Clark was a frontier fort located just off U.S. Route 90 near Brackettville, in the county of Kinney, in the U.S. state of Texas. It later became the headquarters for the 2nd Cavalry Division. The Fort Clark Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 1979. The Commanding Officer's Quarters at Fort Clark was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1988. The Fort Clark Guardhouse became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1962. The Fort Clark Officers' Row Quarters was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1991.
Las Moras Creek, a stream in Kinney and Maverick Counties in Texas. Its source is on the northern foot of Las Moras Mountain, five miles northeast of Brackettville in Kinney County, at 29°22′25″N100°23′09″W. It runs south southwest for forty miles, through Las Moras Springs at Brackettville, to its mouth at its confluence with the Rio Grande, five miles northwest of Quemado in Maverick County.
The Rio Grande is one of the principal rivers in the southwest United States and northern Mexico. The Rio Grande begins in south-central Colorado in the United States and flows to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way, it forms part of the Mexico–United States border. According to the International Boundary and Water Commission, its total length was 1,896 miles (3,051 km) in the late 1980s, though course shifts occasionally result in length changes. Depending on how it is measured, the Rio Grande is either the fourth- or fifth-longest river system in North America.
