San Angelo State Park

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished O.C. Fisher Reservoir on the North Concho River in 1952 to control flooding, and the land around it opened as San Angelo State Park on May 1, 1995, 7,677 acres in all. The river takes its name from shells: concho is Spanish for shell, for the freshwater mussels in it, which make iridescent pearls, among them the large purple gems Spanish explorers called Concho pearls.

TPWD puts people in this country for roughly 18,000 years, from the hunters of Ice Age game to the Jumano, who followed the forks of the Concho east to trade with peoples of central Texas. German buyers were acquiring land along the river by the mid-1800s, and Fort Concho followed in 1867.

The park sits where four regions meet, the High Plains to the north, the Hill Country to the south, the Rolling Plains to the east and the Trans-Pecos to the west, and some 350 bird species and about 50 mammals have been recorded. It keeps bison and the Official Texas State Longhorn Herd in paddocks, with ranger-led tours. Fifty miles of trails cross the North and South units for hikers, cyclists and riders who bring their own horses. The two-mile Dinosaur Trail passes fossil trackways left by creatures of the Permian, older than the dinosaurs. The lake level varies, so ask before launching a boat.