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Although it is difficult to recognize now, San Francisco is a sandy landscape, a peninsula surrounded by water on three sides, with little to drink. Without the discovery of fresh water, there probably wouldn't be any settlers in the area. Therefore, it seemed only fitting to start my historical explorations with water.
A spring is a place where the water in the earth, called groundwater, flows to the surface naturally. In a small little corner of the Presidio National Park, the water that has been absorbed into the sand, flows down a hill until it hits a ridge of serpentine rock and is pushed out on to the earth's surface. The spring has a seasonal flow. When rain is plentiful, the water pours out. With our current drought, it is but a trickle.
A spring is a place where the water in the earth, called groundwater, flows to the surface naturally. In a small little corner of the Presidio National Park, the water that has been absorbed into the sand, flows down a hill until it hits a ridge of serpentine rock and is pushed out on to the earth's surface. The spring has a seasonal flow. When rain is plentiful, the water pours out. With our current drought, it is but a trickle.
A stone well exists to mark the spot of the spring with cobblestone water channels branching out. These were built in the 1930s and are probably a similar design to earlier versions. Although the spring no longer provides drinking water to its human community, most of the naturally running creeks it feeds are now enclosed in pipes underground. Five thousand years ago, the Ohlone tribe gathered water here to bring to their shellmound homes in what is now Crissy Field. In 1776, when the Spanish built El Presidio (their military base), they also used the spring for drinking water. Later on in the early 1800s, a small settlement of homes was built right near by and would be passed as walkers went back and forth from the Presidio to Mission Dolores. The homes are believed to belong to the family of Marco Briones, a solider who was part of the founding expedition. |