DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. San Solomon Spring, out in Reeves County — and friend, this is a spring with layers to it, like good West Texas limestone. By 1849, it already had a name: Mescalero Spring.
That's what it was called when the Mescalero Apaches were working the land around it, watering corn and peaches right there in what most folks would call hard country. Corn and peaches. Let that sink in.
This spring was making things grow. Come 1856, the soldiers at Fort Davis had their own name for it — Head Spring. You can almost hear the sergeant filling out the report, practical as a boot heel: just call it Head Spring and be done with it.
But neither of those names stuck for the long run. The name that did stick — San Solomon Spring — came from the first permanent settlers, Mexican farmers who put down roots and gave the place the name it carries to this day. Then, in 1871, the story shifts gear.
Miller, Lyles, and Murphy arrived and began large-scale commercial irrigation. And it was Murphy who built the first canals — channeling that ancient water out across the land in a way nobody had done here before. One spring.
A Mescalero name, a soldier's name, a settler's name. And canals reaching out across the desert like the spring itself was finally stretching its arms. San Solomon Spring had been generous for a long time.
In 1871, folks just finally figured out how to ask properly.
What the marker says
Called "Mescalero Spring" in 1849, when watering corn and peaches of the Mescalero Apaches. To Ft. Davis soldiers, 1856, was "Head Spring". Present name given by first permanent settlers, Mexican farmers. Miller, Lyles and Murphy in 1871 began large-scale commercial irrigation. Murphy built first canals. (1964)