San Angelo

History

In 1632, a short-lived mission of Franciscans under Spanish auspices was founded in the area to serve native people. The mission was led by the friars Juan de Salas and Juan de Ortega, with Ortega remaining for six months. The area was visited by the Castillo-Martin expedition of 1650 and the Diego de Guadalajara expedition of 1654. During the region's development, San Angelo was at the western edge of the area called Texas, successively claimed in the 1800s by Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, and finally the United States in 1846. The city of San Angelo was founded in 1867, when the United States built Fort Concho, one of a series of forts designed to protect the frontier. The fort was home to cavalry, infantry, and the famous Black Cavalry, also known as buffalo soldiers by American Indians. The settler Bartholomew J. DeWitt founded the village of Santa Angela outside the fort at the junction of the North and South Concho Rivers. He named the village after his wife, Carolina Angela. The name was eventually changed to San Angela. It changed again to San Angelo in 1883 on the insistence of the United States Postal Service, as "San Angela" is ungrammatical in Spanish. The town became a trade center for farmers and settlers in the area, as well as a fairly lawless cowtown filled with brothels, saloons, and gambling houses. After being designated as the county seat, the town grew quickly in the 1880s, aided by being on the route of newly constructed railroads. It became a central transportation hub for the region. The Santa Fe Railroad arrived in 1888 and the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway in 1909. After a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak hit the U.S. in the early 1900s, many patients moved to San Angelo. At the time, doctors could only recommend rest in dry,…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 58.2 sq mi (150.9 km), of which 2.3 sq mi (6.1 km) (4.03%) are covered by water. San Angelo is on the northwestern edge of the Edwards Plateau and the northeastern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert at the junction of the North and South Concho Rivers. The city has three lakes: Twin Buttes Reservoir, O.C. Fisher Reservoir, and Lake Nasworthy. The Middle Concho River joined the South Concho several miles upstream, but the confluence has been obscured by the Twin Buttes dam. San Angelo is about west of Austin. San Angelo falls near the boundary between the subtropical semiarid scrubland (Köppen BSh) and midlatitude scrubland climates (Köppen BSk). It is in the region where Central Texas meets West Texas weather. Temperatures reach about 30.1 days per year on average. In 2011, San Angelo recorded 100 days of or higher. The typical year has 60.3 days with lows below freezing. | source 2 = National Weather Service | source = }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,496
• White-winged Dove

  Zenaida asiatica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,743
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,698
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,348
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,116
• Great Blue/Cocoi Heron

  Ardea herodias Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,114
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,965
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,964

Most recent

• M 2.6 — 2026-06-01
  18 km SSE of Westbrook, Texas
• M 3.3 — 2026-04-20
  26 km S of Westbrook, Texas
• M 2.9 — 2026-03-03
  24 km SSW of Westbrook, Texas
• M 3 — 2026-01-02
  23 km S of Westbrook, Texas
• M 2.9 — 2026-01-02
  23 km S of Westbrook, Texas
• M 2.6 — 2025-12-22
  24 km SSW of Westbrook, Texas