Brackenridge Park Before 1899

Brackenridge Park Before 1899. . Native Americans Camped for thousands of years along the meandering river formed by springs near this site. They found shelter in the wooded landscape and were nourished by abundant vegetation and wildlife. Spanish colonists who arrived in the 1700s were granted land along the river and dug irrigation ditches (acequias) that watered their crops and livestock., As the town grew in the 1800s, limestone from nearby quarries provided building material, and small gardens supplied produce for residents. By the 1860s the city had sold its remaining public lands in the area, retaining only the quarries and a small riverfront parcel where Jean B. LaCoste built a privately owned water works to supply the city. The remaining river frontage was purchased by George Brackenridge, who acquired and expanded LaCoste's water works in the 1880s. When a terrible drought dried the river's springs in the 1890s, Brackenridge drilled artesian wells to supply his water system. He no longer needed the riverfront land and, in 1899, donated it to the city as a public park that was named in his honor., Captions , Left: Many of the Native Americans who inhabited this region were hunters and gatherers known as Coahuiltecans. They hunted and fished here along the river and found shelter under the area's tall trees. This artist's depiction illustrates the Coahuiltecan's lifestyle thousands of years ago. , Painting; Frank Weir, Bastrop; Courtesy: TexasBeyondHistory.net, Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin. , Upper Middle Left: George W. Brackenridge. moved to San Antonio in 1865 and began purchasing property along the San Antonio River north of the city. By the 1870s Brackenridge owned most of the land that comprises today's Brackenridge Park. , Courtesy: Witte Museum, San Antonio. , Upper Right 1: San Antonio's first artesian wells were drilled by an ice company just south of Brackenridge Park in 1889. This photograph shows the first artesian wells drilled by George Brackenridge's Water Works Company in 1893 at Market Street and the river. , Courtesy:Zintgraff Collection, University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections. , Upper Right 2: This map outlines the 199-acre park tract donated by the San Antonio Water Works Company to the city in 1899. The company retained all of the land surrounding the park and provided only limited public access. Additional entrances to the park were not created until 1908. , Courtesy: San Antonio Municipal Archives, Office of the City Clerk.