Burgess' Water Hole

The earliest written description of the spring comes from Juan Domínguez de Mendoza, whose party camped here in January 1684. They named it San Lorenzo after a fire threatened the camp on the night of January 5, recalling St. Laurence, who was martyred by burning; for lack of suitable wood they raised no cross. In 1787 Gen. Juan de Ugalde attacked a Mescalero Apache village at Aguaje de San Felipe, believed to be this spring. Another name, La Brocha, may mean loaded dice or paintbrush.

What the plaque says

Burgess' Water Hole, called San Lorenzo by Juan Dominguez de Mendoza,1684. Later Charco Alzate in honor of an Apache chieftain. Water hole honoring John W. Burgess, pioneer freighter who here outwitted the Apaches. The emigrant road to California by the way of Chihuahua passed this place.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Big Bend — 0.8 mi
  The museum of the Big Bend region and northern Mexico on the Sul Ross State University campus in Alpine, back since 2007 in its native-stone building of 1937.
• Marfa Lights Viewing Area — 15 mi
  The roadside viewing area on US 90 nine miles east of Marfa, where people gather after dark to watch the horizon toward the Chinati Mountains for the Marfa lights.
• Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens — 16 mi
  The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute's grounds south of Fort Davis, with an 18-acre botanical garden, a cactus museum and trails into the desert foothills.
• Fort Davis National Historic Site — 21 mi
  A frontier post of 1854 to 1891 on the San Antonio-El Paso Road, garrisoned after the Civil War by Black regiments, with its buildings restored to their 1880 look.

More markers nearby

• Texas Confederate General Lawrence "Sul" Ross — 0.8 mi
• Texas Confederate Colonel Henry P. Brewster (1816-1884) — 1.0 mi
• Brewster County — 7.5 mi
• Ancient Rocks Boundary — 7.5 mi