San Pedro Springs, a cluster of springs in San Antonio fed by the Edwards Aquifer, has been a vital place for thousands of years. Paleo-Indian artifacts show human use more than 12,000 years ago, and later the Payaya people lived nearby at Yanaguana, or “place of refreshing waters.” In the Spanish colonial era, the springs were named in 1709, and in 1718 they were central to the founding of Villa de Béxar and nearby Mission San Antonio de Valero, the first permanent European settlement in San Antonio. Their waters also supported an 1730s acequia and later recreation, though the springs now seldom flow because of aquifer pumping.