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Holder guided me to Barksdale, four miles north of Camp Wood, to look at more springs. “Until two years ago, this was the sole source of drinking water for the town,” Holder said of the gin-clear water in the small pond. “The smaller the town, the more people want to visit,” he noted, as we headed north of town to Camp Wood Springs, aka Old Faithful Springs, a couple hundred yards from the river. He attended elementary school here before moving away and returned as a retiree eight years ago. Holder is a retired school teacher and businessman whose kinfolk go back to the 1880s around these parts.
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My guide was Jim Holder, a chirpy, suspenders-wearing board member for the local volunteer group installing exhibits and signage for Mission San Lorenzo de La Santa Cruz, a public archeological site near the banks of the Nueces. I wanted to know if the main channel of the Nueces River, about 20 miles south of its headwaters, was as clear, clean, and dreamy to swim in as the neighboring Frio and Devils rivers. The water, fresh and infused with ozone, even smelled amazing, like a crashing wave at the beach, minus the salt. The sweetest water I’ve ever seen was on a ranch near the headwaters of the West Fork of the Nueces, out in the middle of nowhere. Rivers and creeks are my thing, as long as they’re unspoiled, untamed, and unchlorinated-the clearer, the better. I’m a spring-fed freshwater swimming nut. It’s also why a growing number of intrepid travelers are passing on popular Hill Country destinations to play in Camp Wood, as well as Barksdale, Montell, and points in between. The river is why people settled in the remote Nueces Canyon and why they remain. These spots exist expressly because of the Nueces River and its adjoining creeks, springs, and tributaries. The shuttered two-story hotel, the faded sign identifying the mohair business, the empty Lindbergh Park, and the mysterious point of interest with seven flagpoles on SH 55 just north of town serve as testaments to events that transpired here on the western edge of the Hill Country over the past 250 years or so. The newest structure was a Family Dollar. None of the businesses were gussied up, and there wasn’t a winery or distillery for miles. Most of the storefronts along State Highway 55-the main drag dually known as Nueces Street-were occupied, but this did not feel like the Hill Country most tourists experience. I arrived in Camp Wood, population 736, a century-old town originally known as a hub for raising sheep and goats.