bjgreen
Disappearing trout close a popular park. Image: New York Public Library
By Betsy J. Green
Veronica Springs Road gets its name from a spring in the area that was said to be healthful and medicinal. People visited the spring to drink the water, and the Veronica Springs Company also bottled the water. But in January 1919, the spring was closed to the public because of fish filching. Someone had drained the pond there and had stolen the pet trout.
“The vandalism and thefts completed yesterday has now shut the public out forever unless passes are first obtained.”
Betsy’s Way Back When book — 1918 — is now available in local bookstores and at Amazon.com. This is the fifth book in her series of the history of Santa Barbara, one year at a time. Learn more at
So whereabouts is this fabled spring located, and more importantly is it open to the public?
Still there. Water seeping up out of the ground all up & down Las Positas corridor below Modoc, especially after a good soaking rain but year-round in some places. “Las Positas” = “the little pools”, ie: “the puddles”.
A few decades ago there was only plywood over the spring, which was half way up one of the hills. We collected a water sample with a bottle and some line. I tasted it and it is just awful!