Las Moras Spring, the ninth largest spring in Texas and the largest in Kinney County, has been important for its location and natural resources. Moras, meaning “mulberries” in one Spanish translation, refers to the mulberry trees along Las Moras bank. The spring discharges an average of 12-14 million gallons per day. Archaeological objects such as flint points and burned-rock middens show that prehistoric people frequented Las Moras. In historic periods, the area was occupied by Coahuiltecan Indians, hunter-gatherer tribes in the Lower Pecos region, Apache, and Comanche, who stopped at Las Moras Spring while on trails into Mexico. The annals of New Spain from 1590-1771 record Europeans such as Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, Fernando del Bosque, General Alonzo de Leon, and Field Marshal Señor Marqués de Rubí traveling to the spring. On October 13, 1840, Republic of Texas troops under Major Geo T. Howard attacked and destroyed a large Comanche village at the spring. In 1848, Texas patriot Sam Maverick claimed the spring as part of his headright survey. By the next year, travelers on the new military road from San Antonio to El Paso were using the spring as a regular resting place for wagons bound for California. Fort Clark was established on June 20, 1852. The U.S. Army walled the spring pond in 1902 and created a swimming pool fed by the spring. The present pool was constructed for the Army in 1939 through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and is the largest ever built on any post. Supporting over 11,000 years of human life, Las Moras Spring demonstrates the role of ecology in Texas’ development.