CAPOTE SPRINGS. Capote Springs is a group of springs flowing from Quaternary gravel in a remote area eleven miles northeast of Candelaria in western Presidio County (at 30°15' N, 104°33' W). The water produces the beautiful Capote Falls, where it drops over a 180-foot-high cliff of Bracks rhyolite in the Vieja Rim. There is a large buildup of travertine at the falls in the shape of a cape; hence the Spanish name, which means "cape" or "shroud." The very rare and acutely endangered Hinckley columbine and the many-stemmed spider flower have been found in Texas only at these springs. Animal life includes the canyon tree frog, the unisexual whiptail lizard, and the mastiff bat. On July 20, 1976, the springs flowed at a rate of two gallons per second. Rockshelters in the vicinity offered protection to prehistoric inhabitants, whose pictographs and bedrock mortar holes were still visible in 1990.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gunnar Brune, Springs of Texas, Vol. 1 (Fort Worth: Branch-Smith, 1981).
