In this excerpt from the work "The Two JRB's Tour Guide of Val Verde and Coahuila",
our tourguides Dr. John
Romulus Brinkley and Judge
Roy Bean talk about
The "Glorious" Blue Hole (without Fountain)
Dr. Brinkley speaks with saddness. "Known
as the “ Blue Hole” or the “ Pig Pen”, few people swim here, thinking it's poluted,
and it is a little due to those ducks, geese and swans people feed in back of
the Veterinarian's office across the Highway Ninety bridge right there. Sometimes
it makes my eyes get red. You can see the pollution right under those ducks
as a fine green hairlike algae covering the waterplants. Anyway, here you'll
see schools of minnows and waterweed forests. Used to see Nutria swimming here,
too. Unfortunately, the City installed a “fountain” in the middle of the pool
that adds splash and noise, and an uneven, ugly spray. Why do people think
they can improve nature, even before they appreciate it? Way to go, City of
The waters steam in the winter.
Dr. Brinkley: "The crystal-clear clean waters
flow through the Golf Course and fill San Felipe Creek from springs that average
ninety million gallons a day at a uniform seventy two degrees year around.
This creates the mists and sometimes even banks of fog over the creek when the
air gets real cold. Doesn't happen often, in other words. Yankees, and
others who don't think it's cold here, can swim year-around, no Marker what
the air temperature, by sprinting from their warm cars through the occasional
rain or the rarest of sleets to jump into the seventy-two degree creek, swim
for a while, then sprint back to the car. Park the car in the sun, and
it's almost always sunny in
As we approach
"Thass shright." Slurred Judge Roy Bean.
"You know Judge, I don't know why you settled
in Langtry, when right here in
"What do I need ninety million gallons of water a day for? I don't even drink water."
"Well, look what the early enterprising families
of San Felipe Del Rio did. The Losoyas and Garzas and Qualias (who, in
the mid eighteen hundreds had recently arrived from the winery business in Cuatro
Cienegas, Coahuila) engineered one of
"Which weren't here at the time..."
"Yes, thank you for that clarification, Judge. Right here in lovely Moore Park, a dam impounds the waters of the Blue Hole under that marvelous little suspension foot-bridge, resembles a little Golden Gate Bridge, or the Big Mac Bridge between the Michigan Peninsulas. From here the Madre canal splits off and delivers water for irrigation, for lawns, pastures, pecan groves and what-not, throughout Beautiful Downtown and South Del Rio. Eventually these waters irrigate the agricultural bottomlands that fill the three miles between the city and the Rio Grande. It's no mistake that I built my mansion right in the middle of those open spaces, and planted all the stately Royal Palm trees that line the roads from the train station to my home."
"You mean them DYING palm trees, Doc."
"Well, nothing lasts forever, 'cept a man's reputation!"
"During the hot periods of the schoolyear, as a reward, teachers sometimes take children to the Creekand let them jump in with school clothes on."
Beautiful Sycamore tree along the creek.
Fall colors at sunrise along the Curve below Moore Park, Del Rio, Texas.
"In the old days, the community swam in the Creek or at this large MIcipal Pool where they used the Olympic lanes and felt confident because it filled with creek water every few days."
" Doc, you sure make a big thing out of a little bit of water. Looks like a good place to dump trash to me."
"That's right, because you don't appreciate how beautiful it is underwater, and don't realize you're almost ninety-percent water yourself. If we don't protect water, we'll be living just as you intimate, with all water sources treated like a big toilet to throw trash into and watch it disappear. Then where you gonna get a drink, much less swim?"
"Brinkley, you know I don't drink water."
" You should. If you weren't dead already, it'd kill ya. Nowadays this City Pool they fill it with City water, once each summer, to conform to Health Regulations imposed upon them by places that don't have clean water, and then the City drains the pool, that's right it's emptied in winter, as if there was a winter in Del Rio. Recently, a large, incredibly expensive and controversial spiral water slide magically appeared on one end. Ask a local to get the sad story of Government inefficiency. As far as we know, there are no swimming programs in the public School Systems, though the City does offer classes in the short school-year summer."
" I have noticed that a lot of illegal Meskins on this side of the border DO know how to swim."
" Judge, I'm not going to substantiate that remark with a response."
" Huh?"
This excerpt from the work "The
Two JRB's Tour Guide of Val Verde and Coahuila",
where the ghosts of "Doctor"
Brinkley and Judge
Roy Bean lead us around West Texas and
Mexico for some great Coahuilan desert snorkeling.
Might soon be released as a hardcover coffee table book, part of a publication
on CD-ROM and with high-resolution
multi-media; photographs, sound and music,
filmclips, artwork, and textual ruminations.
Contact System Administrator for more information.
All content and images Copyright
© 2002 Mark Plimsoll. All rights reserved.
