Barton Springs Pool, the spiritual spot where Austin locals learn to swim

A primordial swimming hole in the middle of the weirdest city on the planet. The water, pure as a mountain lake and fed by underground springs, hovers around 68 degrees, cold enough to elicit a gasp upon entry. Steep, sun-soaked, grassy slopes face the pool like the tiered seating of an amphitheater. Since the days when Native American tribes performed rituals by the waters, people have come seeking joy, relief, purification, healing and a recess from individuality.

Tech venture capitalists sit on towels alongside grad students, children, guitar-strumming musicians, ATX old-timers and the occasional topless woman. Bathers on emoji-inspired inflatable pool floats drift across the dark blue surface. In the early morning, swimmers slip into the mist-covered waters to put in their daily laps. By a full moon at night, crowds gather in bathing suits to howl at the white disc in the sky.

Diving into a sacred past

The natural wonder formed between 5 million and 20 million years ago as the Earth began to buck and heave in central Texas, thrusting up a long, curving ridge of land from modern-day Del Rio to Dallas. Surrounded by plains and hills, this raised arc trapped storm clouds like a fence, dousing the area with extreme rainfall. The water seeped through the fractured rock, forming an aquifer in the bed of fractured limestone below. In some places, pressure forced groundwater back up to the surface, creating frothing white fountains and crystalline natural pools. Among them was Barton Springs, which has entranced human beings for 10,000 years, evoking an awed, often spiritual response in its diverse visitors.

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