Explore Balmorhea State Park: A Historical Oasis in Texas
Revised by: Laurie E. Jasinski
Published: 1976
Updated: September 9, 2025
Balmorhea State Park is located at Toyahvale, at the northern entrance to the Davis Mountains on State Highway 17 in southeastern Reeves County. The park, including its large rock-walled swimming pool, was built around San Solomon Springs by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The springs, which have been called Mescalero and Head Springs at various times, issue from caverns in the bottom of the swimming pool.
Prehistoric peoples and Mexican settlers farmed in Madera Valley near the park in early times. In 1583 the entrada of Antonio de Espejo met Jumanos in the Pecos valley who guided them up the Toyah valley to the springs. In 1849 John S. Ford passed through the Toyah Creek area and noted its productive land and the corn farmed by Mescalero Indians near the springs. After Fort Davis was reoccupied by the U. S. Army at the end of the Civil War, farmers found a profitable market at the fort for grains, vegetables, and cattle. They irrigated their fields from San Solomon Springs, from which reportedly flowed twenty-two million or more gallons of water daily. In the early 1900s E. D. Balcom, H. R. Morrow, Joe Rhea, and John Rhea organized the Toyah Valley Irrigation Company to supervise water use. The name “Balmorhea” was derived from their combined surnames. By 1915 Reeves County Water Improvement District No. 1 had built Balmorhea Dam and Lake.
In the early 1930s San Solomon Springs was recognized as a unique feature and promoted to the State Parks Board as worthy of preservation. Consequently 950 acres for the park was deeded to the state by private owners and by Reeves County Water Improvement District No. 1 in 1934. By 1935 Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1856 had begun construction in the park, including building what was later promoted as the “world’s largest spring-fed swimming pool” at San Solomon Springs. Using approximately 30,000 square feet of “hand-finished stone,” crews built walls and crafted a stone bottom for the pool, which covered approximately 1.75 acres. Using local materials, workers also built a park road, concession buildings, a caretaker’s residence, bathhouses, and cabins (later known as the San Solomon Springs Courts). The pool formally opened on June 27, 1936, though construction continued at the park until Company 1856 left in January 1940. In the 1940s the state legally lost all of the land except for approximately forty-three acres.
Through the decades the park has remained a popular stop for tourists and has recorded more than 200,000 visitors each year. The pool, a favorite recreation spot for swimmers and scuba divers, holds 3.5 million gallons, is more than twenty-five feet deep in places, and has aquatic plants and fish living in its water that maintains a steady temperature range from 72 to 76 degrees year-round. The springs are also home to the endangered Comanche Springs pupfish and the Pecos gambusia. Canals carry water from the springs to a restored wetland (ciénega) and then down irrigation canals to Balmorhea Lake. With the potential of increased hydraulic fracturing (known as “fracking”) for oil and gas production in the county, Texas Parks and Wildlife began a water quality monitoring program in 2017 to assess any impact on water flow and its dependent species in the area.
In 2017 the park initiated extensive renovations, including restoration of the swimming pool, campgrounds, and motor court. In 2020 the park acquired 643 acres of property for future development and use, thereby expanding the park to a total of 761.86 acres. The full restoration project was finally complete in 2024, with the reopening of the San Solomon Springs Courts. Balmorhea State Park also has day-use facilities, a visitor center, and thirty-four campsites.
Bibliography:
Balmorhea State Park, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/balmorhea), accessed August 19, 2025. “Balmorhea State Park Grows Through 643-Acre Land Acquisition,” News Release, June 15, 2020, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20200615a), accessed August 19, 2025. Cynthia Brandimarte with Angela Reed, Texas State Parks and the CCC: The Legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2013). Gunnar Brune, Springs of Texas, Vol. 1 (Fort Worth: Branch-Smith, 1981). C. L. Dowell, Dams and Reservoirs in Texas: History and Descriptive Information (Texas Water Commission Bulletin 6408 [Austin, 1964]). Katie Gutierrez, “Eternal Springs,” Texas Highways, February 2023. Ray Miller, Texas Parks (Houston: Cordovan, 1984).
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Julia Cauble Smith Revised by Laurie E. Jasinski, “Balmorhea State Park,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/balmorhea-state-recreation-area.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
GKB07
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- 1976
- September 9, 2025
