Sheep and Goat Industry in Texas
San Angelo, Tom Green County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Spanish explorers introduced sheep to the Soutwest in the 1500s, and Spanish missions depended on the animals for food and clothing. The first Angora goats, known for the beauty and strength of their mohair, were brought to Texas in 1853 by Col. W. W. Haupt. Pioneer of modern sheep ranching in Texas from 1857 to 1867 was George Wilkins Kendall, who encouraged others with glowing reports of the industry's future while improving his own flocks. Kendall was one of the first to crossbreed the coarse--wooled Mexican churro sheep with the fine-wooled merino variety brought by European settlers. The land, climate, and vegetation of the Edwards Plateau area especially suited the raising of sheep and goats. After 1870, with new markets and abundant land, the industry boomed. Ranchers fought disease, predators, deadly plants, and drouths to build their flocks. Today Texas is the leading producer of sheep and goats in the nation, and San Angelo is the major market center for these animals and their wool. Research facilities such as the San Angelo Research and Extension Center, built in 1969 through the efforts of Gen. Earl Rudder, then president of the Texas A&M System, work for the industry's continued prosperity. (1974)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Spanish explorers brought the first sheep to the Southwest in the 1500s, and Spanish missions relied on them for food and cloth. Angora goats arrived in Texas in 1853, and from 1857 George Wilkins Kendall pioneered modern sheep ranching, crossbreeding Mexican churro with fine-wooled merino. The Edwards Plateau's land and climate proved ideal, and after 1870 the industry boomed—making Texas the nation's leading producer and San Angelo its great wool and mohair market.
Why it matters
Sheep and goat ranching turned the Edwards Plateau into a national center of wool and mohair, a distinctive branch of the western livestock economy that still defines the San Angelo region.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · George Wilkins Kendall
- · Col. W. W. Haupt
- · Earl Rudder
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Knickerbocker
Knickerbocker, TX
Drawn by Dove Creek's water and irrigable land, farmers and stockmen settled this West Texas valley in the 1870s, beginning with the Baze brothers' 1875 irrigation ditch dug to supply nearby Fort Concho. In 1877 New York sheepmen named their ranch—and later the town—for Washington Irving's character Diedrich Knickerbocker, and by 1890 the community boasted stores, hotels, churches, and schools. Like many rural West Texas towns, it faded as automobiles and better roads pulled residents toward San Angelo.
Oldest Rock Building in City
Runnels County, TX
Raised in 1903 at the turn of a booming West Texas cattle-and-farming frontier, this was reportedly the oldest stone building in its town. Its two-foot-thick walls, bound with a homemade sand-and-lime mortar, were built to last in an era when settlers relied on nearby stone rather than shipped-in brick. It first served the practical heart of an agricultural community as a grain and feed store.
Rich Coffey House
Paint Rock, TX
Rich Coffey drove his family, cattle, and cowboys into the rugged country near present-day Ballinger in 1862 and later founded a settlement where the Colorado and Concho rivers meet. A cattleman, freighter, salt trader, county commissioner, and postmaster, he hired Irish stonemason Jonathan Cook to raise a rock house in 1880–81 — a one-and-a-half-story dogrun of unusually fine masonry, a Georgia-style floor plan rare for stone buildings in West Texas. In 1989 the house was moved to higher ground to escape the rising waters of Lake Ivie.
First National Bank in Big Spring
Big Spring, TX
Chartered in 1890 with $50,000 in capital, the First National Bank of Big Spring opened on the ground floor of a downtown building that also housed the post office. A rival, West Texas National Bank, followed in 1903, and both prospered through the boom years of the 1920s before the Great Depression brought hard times. The two institutions merged in 1934 to become the First National Bank in Big Spring.