In the midst of a scorching Texas summer, an oasis
In the midst of a scorching Texas summer, an oasis
It was six o’clock on a Friday morning, at least 15 minutes before dawn over the capital city of Texas, and dozens of automobiles had already gathered into the parking lot at Barton Springs Pool. The pool was located a few miles — and in some ways, an entire planet — away from the illuminated skyscrapers of downtown.
A local worker in the health care industry named Jeremy Baumann had already been in the pool for an hour, swimming the required number of laps. A dedicated procession that would reach several thousand by the evening headed towards the three-acre, spring-fed pool as the city settled in for another day of triple-digit heat: families hauling plastic floaties, workers briefly escaping from offices, and longtime friends and neighbours meeting poolside as much to socialise as to swim.
When locals of Austin discuss Barton Springs,
they do so in a manner that is eerily similar to a religious discussion. “It’s very much a sacred place,” said Kim McKnight, who manages the city’s historic preservation and tourist programmes for the Parks and Recreation Department of the local government. “I am aware that not everyone goes there; however, those who do go there regularly can’t even fathom what life would be like without it.”
The pool, which has been a feature of the Austin landscape since the early 20th century, is held in such high regard by the community that they came dangerously close to staging a rebellion in the 1990s in order to protect it from being developed. On its verdant banks, ceremonies such as weddings and funerals are frequently held. On the official website of the city of Austin, it is boasted that the famous actor Robert Redford learnt to swim in the city when he was just five years old and visiting his family in Austin.
Early Tuesday, a severe heat wave took hold of Texas. It has now extended over the South and Southwest, forcing significant portions of the country to contend with dangerously high temperatures. As severe heat covered the country from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast and threatened to break records in California, Arizona, and other places, over 93 million people were under excessive heat warnings or advisories for the upcoming weekend.
Cars continued to pull into the parking lot at the springs in Austin,
Texas, despite the fact that temperatures as high as 107 were predicted to linger through much of the next week. This was because the water temperature at the springs, whether in the winter or the summer, averaged a comfortable 68 to 71 degrees.
Sometimes the most challenging part is having to stand in one of the long lineups that form about lunchtime to access the Barton Springs Pool. The entrance fee for adults is $5 per person. Those who were standing in queue, according to Cassidy Stillwell, who works as a lifeguard and manages the facilities, were sometimes put under stress from the heat. It is recommended that guests come prepared with sun protection and water.
The pool is supplied with water from four springs that emerge from the Edwards Aquifer. It has a natural bottom, concrete sides and decking, and a large expanse of trees and lawns surrounding it, giving it the appearance of a lake or river rather than a pool. This creates a natural haven in the middle of one of the cities in the United States that is experiencing the most rapid population growth.
“We love it, especially when it’s so hot outside,” said Cedric Atwood of Dallas, who woke up with his family at approximately 4 a.m. and set out for the springs. “We love it, especially when it’s so hot outside,” he said. The Atwood family, consisting of Mr. Atwood, his wife, daughter, and grandson, came approximately four hours later with an armload of pool toys. They intend to stay for the majority of the day and leave in the middle of the afternoon.
A significant number of folks who had congregated along the banks related stories about the pool from when they were children.
Lynn Cooksey, who is now 88 years old and is married to the late Frank Cooksey, the former mayor of Austin, has stated that she began going to Barton Springs in 1953, when she was a freshman attending the University of Texas. On Friday, she was wearing a swimming cap with flowers and sitting next to her good friend Anne Wheat. Anne Wheat was born in 1957, and her parents took her to the pool for the first time not long after she was born. In the late 1940s, Ms. Wheat’s parents went on a blind date to the pool, and that’s how they first met.
The two women had gone to the pool with the intention of swimming, but in addition to that, like many of the pool’s regulars, they had also come to take in the peace that seems to permeate throughout the surrounding scenery of Zilker Metropolitan Park.
“It’s such a beautiful natural setting,” said Ms. Cooksey, who is eligible for free admission since she is 80 years old or older and has a pass for those who are.
The pool is inhabited by a number of different fish and turtles, and it is also a habitat for the endangered Barton Springs salamander, which is protected by the federal government. Many of the people who came on Friday carried goggles and flippers with them in order to explore the 18-foot depths of the pool in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the life that normally lives there.
A hydrogeologist named Patricia Bobeck, who lives around four miles away, mentioned that she frequently put on a snorkel and swam from one end of the pool to the other.
“It’s so fascinating,” was what she had to say about it. It’s really similar to swimming in an aquarium. It’s almost like you’re a visitor to the place where the fish reside.”
