Las Moras Spring
Brackettville, Kinney County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As the ninth largest springs in Texas and the largest springs in Kinney County, Las Moras Spring is significant due to its location and invaluable natural resources. Moras, meaning “mulberries” in one Spanish translation, refer to the mulberry trees found along Las Moras bank. The spring discharges an average of 12-14 million gallons per day. Archeological objects such as flint points and burned-rock middens demonstrated that prehistoric people frequented Las Moras. In historic periods, the area was occupied by Coahuiltecan indians, hunter-gatherer tribes in the lower Pecos region, Apache, and Comanche. These groups stopped at Las Moras Spring while on trails into Mexico. The Annals of New Spain 1590-1771 record Europeans such as Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, Fernando del Bosque, General Alonzo de León and Field Marshal Señor Marqués de Rubí traveling to the spring. On October 13, 1840, Republic of Texas troops under Major John T. Howard attacked and destroyed a large Comanche village here at the spring. In 1848, Texas patriot Sam Maverick claimed the spring as part of his headright survey. By the next year, travelers on the New Military Road from San Antonio to El Paso were using the spring as a regular resting place for wagons bound for California. Fort Clark was established on June 20, 1852. The U.S. Army walled the spring pond in 1902 and created a swimming pool fed by the spring. The present pool was constructed for the army in 1939 through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and is the largest ever built on any post. Las Moras Spring, supporting more than 11,000 years of human life, demonstrates the role of ecology in Texas’ development. (2013)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Las Moras Spring, the largest in Kinney County and ninth largest in Texas, has drawn people for more than 11,000 years, from flint-knapping prehistoric hunters to Coahuiltecan, Apache, and Comanche peoples following trails into Mexico. Spanish expeditions recorded stops here, and in 1840 Republic of Texas troops destroyed a Comanche village at the spring. Fort Clark rose beside it in 1852, and the Army later walled the pool and built a huge WPA swimming pool in 1939.
Why it matters
Reliable water shaped human movement across the Southwest for millennia, and this spring's long story shows how a single natural resource can anchor Indigenous, Spanish, and American history alike.
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Themes & tags
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