This is a “mystery” that has bounced around in my head for a few years. It’s not as though I have obsessed over it, but once in a while the question comes back. Yesterday I found the answer. For the first person to “solve” the mystery I will send one of the photo cards I sell at the Walatowa visitor center. And I will post it with one of the Jemez Eagle stamps that has been picked for consideration in a national contest.
Here is the story, which is mostly a summary of my personal experience.
In the Southwest, it is easier than you might think to find the natural springs flowing out of canyon walls. Coniferous trees demand less water. You can see lots of Ponderosa Pines or Juniper across the canyons in this area of the world. Obviously nothing can ultimately grow without water. However, trees of this type can grow in areas where there is no reliable source of surface water. Deciduous trees in the Southwest are another matter. “Deciduous” is a term which refers to trees that become very colorful in autumn, and then drop their leaves. In this part of the country, with limited rainfall, you don’t normally see deciduous trees apart from a reliable source of surface water.
From pre written history until today, Native Americans, then Spaniards, and now the rest of us locate springs on the canyon walls by searching for autumn's colored leaves. Imagine you have seen the splash of color and go looking for the spring. When you get there, you find no surface water. But, stranger yet, there are very fresh signs that tell you there has been surface water, and very recently. On occasion you return to the “spring”, and it is always the same-plentiful signs of very recent surface water, but no water to be seen on the surface.
The next logical step is to go to one of the old-timers in this little village, and ask him to explain. In my case, it is an 80 year old man who has lived in this valley, and searched for sources of water his entire life. Now the story takes a very surprising twist. This spring is well known to him, and has it’s own, ancient Spanish name. If I understand the translation correctly, it is called the spring that “sleeps”. The spring water regularly comes to the surface, but never during the day. As a source of water available to an animal, or man traveling on foot, the spring only exists at night.
My immediate question (and the mystery to be solved) is why? And it turns out non of our local people, even the elders of the village, have an answer. Yesterday, I found the answer. There is a dead-bang scientific explanation for this spring that “sleeps”. In fact, there is practically a one word answer. A normal person’s common knowledge, along with the facts I have set out here are all you need to solve the mystery. How can a spring (reliably, day after day over hundreds of years) “sleep” during the day and flow at night? Your prize, (and my admiration) awaits you.
Here is the story, which is mostly a summary of my personal experience.
In the Southwest, it is easier than you might think to find the natural springs flowing out of canyon walls. Coniferous trees demand less water. You can see lots of Ponderosa Pines or Juniper across the canyons in this area of the world. Obviously nothing can ultimately grow without water. However, trees of this type can grow in areas where there is no reliable source of surface water. Deciduous trees in the Southwest are another matter. “Deciduous” is a term which refers to trees that become very colorful in autumn, and then drop their leaves. In this part of the country, with limited rainfall, you don’t normally see deciduous trees apart from a reliable source of surface water.
From pre written history until today, Native Americans, then Spaniards, and now the rest of us locate springs on the canyon walls by searching for autumn's colored leaves. Imagine you have seen the splash of color and go looking for the spring. When you get there, you find no surface water. But, stranger yet, there are very fresh signs that tell you there has been surface water, and very recently. On occasion you return to the “spring”, and it is always the same-plentiful signs of very recent surface water, but no water to be seen on the surface.
The next logical step is to go to one of the old-timers in this little village, and ask him to explain. In my case, it is an 80 year old man who has lived in this valley, and searched for sources of water his entire life. Now the story takes a very surprising twist. This spring is well known to him, and has it’s own, ancient Spanish name. If I understand the translation correctly, it is called the spring that “sleeps”. The spring water regularly comes to the surface, but never during the day. As a source of water available to an animal, or man traveling on foot, the spring only exists at night.
My immediate question (and the mystery to be solved) is why? And it turns out non of our local people, even the elders of the village, have an answer. Yesterday, I found the answer. There is a dead-bang scientific explanation for this spring that “sleeps”. In fact, there is practically a one word answer. A normal person’s common knowledge, along with the facts I have set out here are all you need to solve the mystery. How can a spring (reliably, day after day over hundreds of years) “sleep” during the day and flow at night? Your prize, (and my admiration) awaits you.
