End-of-Year Trip

Posted Date: 05/18/2024

Bucky Demel and Merribeth Henry-Gregory’s LHS students ended the year by attending a lecture by Emily Dickerson, park ranger at Balmorhea State Park. She discussed that the San Saloman spring had been used as a water source for the Native Americans before the Anglo-American settlers to farm food crops for Fort Davis. The Spring releases 16 million gallons per day, and the Civilian Conservation Corps created the Balmorhea pool and motor-court motel between 1936-38. The Balmorhea Pool holds 3 million gallons and has a continuous recharge of 16 million gallons per day creating a continuous flow into the pool to help maintain a constant temperature of 73 degrees year-round. The students then toured one of the 40 remaining Cienaga desert wetlands in the US. The CCC had destroyed the original Cienaga, but it was restored in the 1990s. The Cienega houses Texas spiny soft-shell turtles and the endangered Comanche spring pupfish and Pecos gambusia. The canals that connect the cienagas to pool are protected by weirs and waterfalls, that prevent invasive species from entering the area. The students ended the day snorkeling and swimming in the pool. What a fun way to end the year! Thank Mr. Demel and Mrs. Gregory for #expectingexcellence and helping make memories!