Fort Hood Sentinel (Fort Hood, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 11, 2016 Page: 16 of 24
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www.FortHoodSentinel.com
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Jump into history of Wimberley gem
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Because the
water in the
well and creek
come from a
natural artesian
spring, the
water stays at
a consistent 68
degrees all year
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Jacob’s Well has a nearly 13-foot wide mouth is a popular spot from visitors to
leap into from the rocks above. While well jumpers quickly pop back up to the
surface after jumping in, the well extends down reaching an average depth of
120 feet. Visibility into the well from the surface fades into navy blue, making
the well even more mysterious.
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and still left burned. Because the
water is frigid, standing in a sunny
spot in the creek is needed, and that
is sunburn city.
Jumping off the rocks into the
well required a little coaxing for me,
from my friends and others sitting
along the edge of the cave
opening. It looks a lit-
tle daunting stand-
ing at the top of
the rocks and look-
ing into the deep
blue hole. Especially
because the water
. tfts. —
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P/iotos by Erin Rogers, Sentinel Living Editor
Jacob’s Well Natural Area in Wimberley
is one of the most popular swimming
holes in the state, and one of the most
well-known in the country. The natural
artesian spring that feeds the well and
Cypress Creek around it is the Trinity
Aquifer. The water flows naturally about
120 feet below the surface, and feeds
up into the creek. The cave system of
Jacob’s Well is extensive with some
conduits extending out nearly one mile.
It is the second-longest fully-submerged
cave in Texas.
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JACOB'S WELL
natural area
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WIMBERLEY — Texas is home to
some of the nation’s top swimming
holes, and many of those are even
in the Central Texas area.
Jacob’s Well Natural Area is
repeatedly on different lists about
the top hidden swimming holes
in the country, and
lucky for us here at
Fort Hood - it’s right
down the road in
Wimberley.
The swimming
hole requires an easy
.5-mile hike through
native foliage before
getting to the spot,
but once there, it is
definitely worth it.
Jacob’s Well is
a perennial karstic
spring — Trinity Aqui-
fer - that flows into
Cypress Creek. The
extremely clear creek
itself is anywhere from
3- to 5-feet deep, but
the well under the
creek is a whole other
world.
The well, actually a
cave, has a mouth of
about 13 feet in diam-
eter, but descends
vertically for about
30 feet, and then at
an angle for another
90 feet. Until about
the 1950s when further exploration
revealed that there were other tun-
nels branching off of the main well,
people thought the well was only
about 70-feet deep.
The cave tunnels underneath
the initial descent are complex,
with Tunnel A extending nearly
one mile at more than 4,500 feet,
and Tunnel B extending out about
1,000 feet.
The Trinity Aquifer pumping
water up through the well has been
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is so clear you can see really far
down into the cave, so it seemed
like I would sink forever. But the
13-foot-wide opening is promising,
and it would be hard to miss. It was
worth the jump, especially because I
used that as my way to get into the
water initially - the water is chilly
so it’s hard to ease in! Jumping into
the well was a no-turning-back way
to jump and get in all at the same
time.
The fully-submerged cave is
also very attractive to deep-sea and
open-water divers, but area experts
warn against SCUBA diving in the
well. Cave diving apparently poses
many more challenges than open-
water diving because of easily upset
silt causing blackout, ceilings of
the cave, false chimneys and much
more. The cave of Jacob’s Well
has actually claimed eight lives,
and most of them were open-water
and recreational divers looking to
explore the cave system.
In 2004-2007 the Jacob’s Well
Exploration Project was put togeth-
er to finally survey and map the
system. A group of expertly trained
cave and deep-water divers, res-
cue teams, videographers and area
landowners took the appropriate
steps to safely explore and map
the system. To date, the project
has mapped more than 6,000 feet
of passages. To learn more about
the project, visit www.jacobswellex-
ploration/Troject. orgljwep. html.
To learn more about visiting
Jacob’s Well or to reserve a spot
at Jacob’s Well, visit www.co.hays.
tx.us/jwna.aspx.
recorded to be so plentiful and
strong that at times in the 20th
Century it spouted water up six feet
in the air. During the 1920s, the
spring was measured at having a
flow of 170 gallons per second.
Because of development in the
area, the spring’s
flow has weakened,
and in 2000, the
aquifer stopped
flowing for the first
time in (recorded)
history. It stopped
again in 2008, this
obviously sparked
a lot of concern in
the area.
Hayes County
and private land-
owners around
Cypress Creek and
Jacob’s Well pur-
chased 50 acres of
land around the
spot, and another
30 later, to begin
conservation
efforts.
Today, the
spring is still beau-
tiful and gaining its
water flow back all
the time. Visitors
often report seeing
a dome of water
where the mouth
of the cave is.
When my friends and I visited,
we reserved a two-hour time slot
and staked out a piece of rock to
relax and sun on. When we got too
hot, we’d jump into the well from
the rocks above or wade around in
the shallow parts of the crystal-clear
creek.
Because the water in the well and
creek come from a natural artesian
spring, the water stays at a con-
sistent 68 degrees all year, so it is
pretty refreshing in the middle of a
hot summer day.
What we love so much about
the swimming hole is the privacy.
Because visitors can only reserve
two-hour slots, the well and creek
are never too crowded. People have
enough room to relax and swim
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Photos by Erin Rogers, Sentinel Living Editor
Jacob’s Well Natural Area in Wimberley is an oasis in the middle of Central Texas. The perennial karstic spring is one
of the most popular swimming holes in Texas, and often shows up on top swimming hole lists around the country. It
is located about 1 hour and 45 minutes south of Fort Hood, a little southwest of Austin.
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without it being overrun, and we
loved that. Plus, two hours is just
enough time, because the cold
water disguises the fact that you
may be getting fried in the sun.
We wore sunscreen initially and
responsibly reapplied it,
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Pruden, Todd. Fort Hood Sentinel (Fort Hood, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 11, 2016, newspaper, August 11, 2016; Fort Hood, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1205041/m1/16/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Casey Memorial Library.