LA TIERRA

When looking at the lands that hold the sacred springs of what we now call Texas, we see a jagged topography made from limestone, acidic clays and black fertile soils covered in barbed and brushy heat tolerant shrubs, yuccas, cacti and low sprawling canopies of pecan, mesquite and oak trees. The beings that make up this place are mere reflections of the land. It seems the straggling brush and hooves of the deer have been moving along these landscapes for ages. But the surface of the Earth does not remain still.

 Hundreds of millions of years ago this landscape was covered by a sea extending throughout the interior of North America. It swam with crustaceans, corals, and other carbonaceous life forms. Present during this is the Balcones Fault line. This fault line extends across central Texas stretching from Del Rio, through San Antonio & Austin, reaching out toward the Dallas area. 

200 million years ago the Balcones fault line underwent various faulting and shifting events over time. During this period the land uplifts, forming the escarpment, and the sea began to recede southeastward into what we now call the Gulf of Mexico. The shoreline in this period, oscillated between the Balcones Escarpment and our current Gulf of Mexico Shoreline. 

As the shoreline oscillated, the life forms of the sea - calcium carbonate shells and skeletons, corals, and crustaceans - would complete their life-cycles and drift to the ocean floors to settle, compress, and eventually create a sedimentary rock found abundantly in these regions - limestone. 

Limestone is a soft rock that is easily erodible. Due to the uplifting of the Balcones Escarpment and the subsequent receding of the ancient sea into the Gulf - the limestone that formed the land was easily subject to erosion and weathering. Through faulting events and water erosion, our aquifers were formed. The aquifers are massive, underground chambers - identified today as Edwards and Trinity Aquifers.

Over time, these aquifers would fill with rainwater funneled from the escarpment. Excess water began to bleed upwards into the soil of the region. These upward seepings are our sacred springs. The trickles of the springs are what feeds the flowing rivers of the region, creating the nexus for human settlement in the region. The springs serve as a life force - supporting all plants, animals and humans for thousands of years