Christoval Baptist Church

The tabernacle on the South Concho had a second life as a boys' summer camp. In August 1917 Troop 1 of San Angelo, under Scoutmaster O. W. Caldwell, spent four days on the Baptist encampment grounds, the first known summer camp of the Concho Valley's Scouts. In 1923 eighty Scouts slept on folding cots beneath the main tabernacle for $1.50 apiece, with the Kiwanis Club covering the rest, and the 1926 camp used the south side of the river. A flood on September 17, 1936, destroyed the encampment buildings, and the property later became a public park.

What the plaque says

Christoval Baptist Church Settlement of this area began in the 1860s and increased in the 1870s and 1880s following the establishment of Fort Concho in nearby San Angelo. The town of Christoval began to develop by 1885. The South Concho Baptist congregation was organized in 1889 with four charter members. The Rev. T. R. Leggett served as first pastor, and the congregation met in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, built by a group of citizens and used as a Union Church. Located on a hill on the corner of present Church St and Rudd, the Union Church was the site of regular worship services, with various clergy officiating. The name of the South Concho Baptist congregation was changed to Christoval Baptist Church in 1906. Four years later the membership voted to build its own facility, and an octagonal wooden tabernacle was erected. In 1911, the first annual summer Christoval Baptist encampment was held on the banks of the South Concho River. A new church building was dedicated in 1925 during the August camp meeting. Due to the financial strains of the Depression, the campground was sold in 1932. This church remains an important part of the Christoval community. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Concho River Walk — 19 mi
  Four miles of lit trails along the North Concho through downtown San Angelo, rebuilt after voters taxed themselves in 2004, with gardens, sculpture, a river stage and stocked trout.
• Fort Concho National Historic Landmark — 19 mi
  The stone post at the forks of the Concho, headquarters of the Tenth Cavalry from 1875 to 1882, saved by a woman with a museum and now a city-run landmark of 23 original buildings.
• San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts — 19 mi
  A free art museum on the Concho beside Fort Concho, founded in the fort's 1868 quartermaster building and known nationally for its biennial ceramics competition.
• San Angelo State Park — 19 mi
  A 7,677-acre park around O.C. Fisher Reservoir on the edge of San Angelo, where four Texas landscapes meet and the state's official longhorn herd grazes beside a bison paddock.

More markers nearby

• Christoval — steps away
• Christoval United Methodist Church — 0.3 mi
• Knickerbocker — 9.3 mi
• Knickerbocker Schools — 9.4 mi