Jacob’s Well closed for third consecutive swimming season

WIMBERLEY    —  On May 1, the Hays County Parks and Recreation Department announced the closure of Jacob’s Well’s swimming season until further notice, marking 2024 as the third year the spring has been closed to swimming.

According to parks education coordinator Katherine Sturdivant, the oral history of Jacob’s Well stems to the early 1800s. One significant story was of a patriarch named William Winters. The legend states that Winters was hiking Cypress Creek when he heard a gush of water up ahead. There, he discovered Jacob’s Well, with water flowing rapidly and a geyser-like shot of water up to six feet in the air. Though there is no formal evidence of the occasion, one thing is for certain: the well has not seen the immense flow its legend tells in quite some time.

Sturdivant cites approximately five other times in the spring’s history, where the water has stopped flowing: in the year 2000 — the first recorded time — 2009, 2013, 2022, 2023 and now, 2024.

“Certainly, this has been the longest period of no flow that we’ve ever seen,” said Sturdivant. “I’ve worked here for seven years and in the past, I never saw Jacob’s Well the way it is right now. I never even thought it could be this low. The times in the past, where it did quit flowing, they lasted maybe 10 or 20 days and then, those water levels were restored by rainfall. The last couple of years have been very different.”

While there is still little water in the creek, it is at most ankle deep and this is what their team describes as “discharge.” It is essentially trickling out of a corner of the spring, filled with algae and has an odor, explained the coordinator.

As for Jacob’s Well, the submerged cave system from which the park gains its name, it still has water within its more than 100-foot-deep center. It seems as though it is holding steady, but Sturdivant stated that last year, it did drop approximately one to two feet.

Despite the available water inside the cave system, Sturdivant said that the park elects to keep the spring closed not only for safety in case someone misses their jump into the water, but also due to pollution. Previously, she said that for three days, they kept the park open with the limited water and there was a noticeable film on top, full of oils and sunscreen. This water is not only for the entertainment of visitors, but it also supplies various farmers and families, so to keep it open felt irresponsible, Sturdivant said.

There are two main causes for the lack of water within the creek. The first is the multi-year drought that the state has experienced. According to Sturdivant, 2022 brought half the amount of rainfall typically expected at 16 inches and the number is steadily declining.

Community members may question how the water level is lessening this year due to the wet spring the county has seen so far. In response, Sturdivant stated that it is the location where the rain falls that matters: “We need that rain to be falling in a very specific spot called the recharge zone; otherwise, it is not making it into the right course into the aquifer to supply Jacob’s Well with water.”

This means that despite the rainy weather the Hill Country has experienced recently, unless water falls into the Trinity Aquifer's opening near Fredericksburg, the water is not feeding into the spring.

“Imagine two solid layers that water can’t get through [on top], but water is running in between those layers. So, everywhere between [Wimberley] and Fredericksburg looks like that, where water is falling on the surface, but it can’t get into the aquifer,” explained Sturdivant. “It has to get in at the entrance point, or the recharge zone, out west of here, so that it can flow into that pathway to get pushed back out of Jacob’s Well. If it [rains] here, it’s going right downstream to the gulf and it's good for somebody, just not really us.”

The other reason is that there is simply a larger population than there used to be, so more water is being taken out than is being put back in.

Right now, the coordinator does not see the ability for the park to reopen its swimming season for the remainder of the year. The team is going to reevaluate the conditions monthly, but it would take a lot of rain and even if somehow the creek is refilled by August, she believes that it would be better to take the year off and give the spring a break prior to next year’s season.

Although there is not one way to “fix” the drought that the spring is experiencing, Sturdivant expresses that education can go a long way. She stated that a lot of individuals are unaware that Jacob’s Well is not flowing and if they don’t know that, then they can’t understand why.

“Letting people know why [this is happening] is the first step because then they can make informed decisions about how to protect their own community. If we give people the tools to make the right decisions or to make informed decisions, then they can take that power back. They can become stewards of their environment,” said Sturdivant.

The coordinator stressed that just because the swimming season is closed, does not mean the rest of the park is.

“The parks aren’t dead; we’re not done. The migratory birds are coming through [and] the flowers and our gardens are beautiful and blooming. We’ve got geocaching opportunities, other fun events are coming, so we’re still here.”

Residents can visit the park at 10 a.m. every Saturday through the end of May to take free guided tours down to the well. For more information and to stay updated, visit bit.ly/3JMRnVM or Jacob's Well’s social media sites.