Barton Springs!

What Is Barton Springs?

This is the fourth largest spring in Texas and home to both a municipal swimming pool and rare salamanders!

What Makes It Beautiful?

Long before this was Austin, these cool springs were home to two unique species of salamanders, now called the Austin and Barton Springs salamanders! Both still have gills as adults, and the Austin blind salamander has no eyes at all! The course of history has brought these two salamanders to the edge of extinction!

Though the ancestors of the Tonkawa and Lipan Apache lived around these springs for thousands of years, they’re now named for William Barton, one of the 1830 surveyors of Little Colony, which would become the City of Austin! He moved to this spot next to the springs in 1837 after the passing of his wife, Stacy, and named two of the springs for his daughters, Parthenia and Eliza! Within two years, this whole area was known as Barton Springs, which the Bartons kept open for fishing, swimming and sightseeing, even keeping two baby bison as attractions to draw more tourists!

Even after Mr. Barton died in 1840, and even after the 15-year legal battle over who actually owned the land, these springs remained a big attraction in Austin, as evidenced by the diaries of a young Rutherford B. Hayes! Folks would come here to bathe, enjoy scenic carriage rides, and, after the Civil War, have military reunions, but the creek itself also powered a number of flour mills along its banks! But it was Andrew Zilker, a rancher and businessman, who made Barton Springs what it is today. He started buying up this land in 1901 and built an amphitheater for meetings of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks! He would then go on to donate fifty acres of his land to the city for use as a public park, which the Council approved on January 3, 1918!

The park then opened for public use in the summer of 1934, sporadically of course, as flooding from the upper creek frequently closed the pool. When it opened, it was explicitly segregated. After all, Mr. Barton was a slave owner, and Mr. Zilker dedicated the park to Confederate generals, Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston. When Joan Khabele, one of the first Black students to enroll at Austin High School, wasn’t allowed to join her class in the pool during their 1960 senior picnic, she jumped in anyway, kicking off a year of weekly swim-ins, which led to the integration of the Barton Springs Pool!

How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?

Pay the entrance fee to help maintain trails, signs, structures, and other visitor services!
Volunteer with the Barton Springs Conservancy!
Become a member of the Friends of Barton Springs!
Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!