San Angelo, Texas map
31.46° N · 100.44° W · Tom Green County seat · elev. ~1,850 ft · Central Time
San Angelo is the largest city on the Edwards Plateau and one of the largest cities in the United States with no interstate highway. The North Concho River joins the combined South and Middle Concho just below downtown, and the Concho River runs east from there toward the Colorado.
Centered on downtown. The water west and southwest of the city is Twin Buttes Reservoir; O.C. Fisher Reservoir is the arm to the northwest.
Where San Angelo is in Texas
San Angelo sits in the middle of a wide gap between the state's interstates. I-20 runs about 90 miles north, I-10 about 70 miles south, and neither comes near the city; every approach is a US highway. Abilene is 90 miles northeast on US-277, Midland about 110 miles northwest, and San Antonio 215 miles southeast on US-87. That isolation is the single most useful thing to know when planning a drive here.
The city grew up around Fort Concho, established in 1867 on the south bank of the river to guard the trails west. The settlement of San Angela started across the water on the north bank, and the two sides are still separated by the Concho and its parks. Tom Green County covers 1,540 square miles, and San Angelo holds roughly five-sixths of its people; the surrounding counties — Coke, Runnels, Concho, Irion, Sterling — are ranch country with a few hundred to a few thousand residents each.
Rivers and reservoirs
Three named forks give the Concho Valley its name. The North Concho comes down from Sterling County and is dammed at O.C. Fisher Reservoir on the northwest edge of the city, where San Angelo State Park occupies both shores. The Middle and South Concho are impounded southwest of town in Twin Buttes Reservoir, and water released from it feeds Lake Nasworthy, the small lake ringed with houses just south of the city. All three streams are unreliable: the reservoirs run far below capacity in dry years, and the river through downtown is held up by low dams so that it stays a river.
The Concho River corridor through the center of town is a continuous park with a paved trail, and the stretch between Bell Street and Oakes Street passes Fort Concho's parade ground.
Base, campus and stock show
Goodfellow Air Force Base opened in 1941 as an Army flying school on the southeast edge of town and is now a joint training installation: the 17th Training Wing teaches intelligence and cryptology to students from every service, and the Department of Defense fire academy is on the same field. Angelo State University, founded in 1928 as San Angelo College and now part of the Texas Tech University System, occupies a campus southwest of downtown between Johnson Street and Avenue N.
The San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo runs for roughly two weeks each February at the fairgrounds on the west side, and it is the busiest fortnight of the year for hotels here. The old sheep and wool trade that gave the city its early money still shows in the warehouses along the rail line north of the river.
Highways
- US-67 – northeast to Ballinger, Brownwood and eventually Dallas; southwest to Mertzon, Big Lake and Fort Stockton.
- US-87 – north to Sterling City, Big Spring and Lubbock; south to Eden, Brady and San Antonio.
- US-277 – north to Bronte and Abilene; south to Sonora and Del Rio on the Rio Grande.
- Loop 306 – the freeway loop around the south and east sides, carrying US-67 and US-87 traffic past the city.
- SH-208 – north to Robert Lee and Colorado City, joining I-20.
- FM-2288 – the western bypass between US-87 north and US-67 southwest, running above Twin Buttes.
Districts and neighborhoods
| Area | What's there |
|---|---|
| Downtown | Concho Avenue, the 1928 Cactus Hotel, the river walk, Tom Green County courthouse |
| Fort Concho | National Historic Landmark south of the river; original limestone barracks and officers' quarters |
| Santa Rita | Older residential district east of Angelo State, named for the oil well that funded the university system |
| Angelo State / West | Angelo State University campus and the Johnson Street corridor |
| Goodfellow AFB | East side off Paint Rock Road; the Air Force's intelligence and firefighter training center |
| College Hills | Southeast, between Sherwood Way and Southland Boulevard |
| Southland / Bluffs | Newest subdivisions and retail on the southwest side inside Loop 306 |
| Lake Nasworthy | Lake houses, marinas and Mary Lee Park south of the city on Knickerbocker Road |
| Lake View | North side across the North Concho, around Grape Creek Road |
Distances from San Angelo
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Abilene | 90 | US-277 N |
| Midland | 110 | US-87 N / SH-158 W |
| Odessa | 130 | US-87 N / SH-158 W |
| Big Spring | 105 | US-87 N |
| Lubbock | 205 | US-87 N |
| San Antonio | 215 | US-87 S |
| Fredericksburg | 150 | US-87 S |
Goodfellow Air Force Base is the city's largest employer and trains students from every branch of the service, so the population figure above understates how many people are in town on a given weekday.