SAN MARCOS, Texas -- Decades ago eight millimeter film captured mermaids in a crystal blue abyss. The year was 1968, when Aquarena Springs may not have been the greatest show on earth, but in Texas, it reigned supreme.
If you talked to almost anybody who ever worked out here, probably the best job they ever had in their life, said former mer-man and General Manager Scott McGehee.
McGehee started his 20-year Aquarena career with a summer job at the park's famous submarine theater, an underwater spectacle lasting almost 50 years, with a star named Ralph.
Who knew pigs could swim? laughed Linda Keese, who can't forget her first submarine trip as a student at the then Southwest Texas State Teachers College.
The mermaids were fabulous. All those people -- they could hold their breath, they could drink a coke under the water, eat peanuts under the water. It was something else, Keese said.
The submarine theater drew record visitation into the mid 1980s when it ran into a problem -- bigger amusement parks drawing bigger crowds slowly put Ralph the Swimming Pig and the mermaids out of business.
Rusty tram towers now sit across from a sunken theater that's sat unused for 15 years.
This is the most significant environmental restoration project taking place in the United States today, said Andrew Sansom, director of the River Systems Institute.
Sansom is now leading the group taking the springs back to their natural state. This year, they secured the $5 million needed for a makeover, starting with the sub.
Aquarena represents just one era in a long, long continuum of human use, explained Sansom.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is handling the 150-ton piece of concrete with care. Eight endangered or threatened species call the springs home.
This is one of a kind, said McGehee. This is history being moved and changed. It's pretty neat.
The bittersweet moment drew plenty of onlookers each waiting for the inevitable demolition of the sunken stage.
I had to come here and document it and say goodbye, said Linda Keese. It's just the end to an era; it really is.
It's an end to a time few remember, whose mermaid memories will never fade.
