Concho County

The Handbook of Texas says the county's most intensive archeological work has been in the O. H. Ivie Reservoir area on the Colorado, where evidence points to occupation as early as 10,000 to 8,000 B.C. People camped there for food, water, stone and the shelter of high river cliffs. In 1847 surveyors sent by John O. Meusebach laid out long lots along the Concho instead of the square lots the colonization contract called for, perhaps to give more tracts water. In 1849 Robert S. Neighbors's party, with John S. Ford, crossed the county's south along Brady Creek.

What the plaque says

Created February 1, 1858 organized March 11, 1879. Named for the river which the Spaniards called the Concho because of the many shells that they found in it.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnegie Library of Ballinger — 16 mi
  A 1909 limestone library with an Ionic portico in a railroad town the Santa Fe created in 1886, one of the few Texas Carnegie libraries still working in its original building.

More markers nearby

• John S. Chisum, Confederate Beef Contractor — 3.2 mi
• Community of Concho — 6.8 mi
• San Clemente Mission — 9.4 mi
• Site of Mission San Clemente — 11 mi