Christoval

The Handbook of Texas says Christoval has also been known as Delong and South Concho. By 1901 its school had forty-six pupils and one teacher, and in 1914 the town had 200 people, two general stores and a newspaper, the Christoval Observer. Its population peaked at 544 in the 1930s, with twenty businesses, then fell to 216 by 1973 despite a local mohair industry. Residents feared more decline when U.S. 277 was rerouted around the town in 1987, but in 2000 Christoval had 422 people and twenty-nine businesses. Pugh Park's woods keep the area's original look.

What the plaque says

Frontiersmen began to immigrate into the south Concho Valley in 1870s, locating along the "Toe Nail" trail from Fort McKavett to Fort Concho. By mid-1880s the settlement began to develop and a Union Church was organized, the South Concho Irrigation Co. was established in 1885, and built a dam and 3 miles of canals to furnish water to dry farmland. Christopher C. Doty (1857-1944), who had arrived in Texas in 1879, opened a store and applied for a post office in 1888, after rejection of application for "Alice", due to another office of that name, Doty suggested "Christobal" (Spanish for Christopher). Confirmation of establishment of the office and Doty's appointment as postmaster arrived in Jan, 1889, but the spelling of the name had been changed to Christoval. After flood in Aug. 1906, a tract of bottomland was purchased for a city park, which became popular Baptist campground and site of Confederate reunions, both attended by thousands of regional residents. A bath house, built in 1915 at nearby mineral wells, was first of several local health facilities. Arrival of the Panhandle & Santa Fe Railroad, in 1930, made Christoval a shipping point for area sheep, wool, and cattle industries. (1973).

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Concho River Walk — 18 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

• Knickerbocker — 9.1 mi
• Knickerbocker Schools — 9.2 mi
• John R. ("Sarge") Nasworthy — 14 mi
• Site of Ben Ficklin — 15 mi