Fort Concho

Fort Concho, in San Angelo, was one of a number of United States military posts built to establish law and order in West Texas as settlers began to move in after the Civil War. A site at the juncture of the Main and North Concho rivers was selected in November 1867 for a new post to replace Fort Chadbourne, which lacked an adequate water supply. Company H of the Fourth United States Cavalry arrived there in December. The post's first commanding officer, Capt. George Gibson Huntt, named the post Camp Hatch after the commander of his regiment, Maj. John Porter Hatch. Later it was called Camp Kelly for the recently deceased Maj. Michael J. Kelly, and in March 1868 the post became Fort Concho, named after the Middle and North Concho rivers, which converge in San Angelo to form the Concho.

Fort Concho's commissary storehouse (today the oldest building in San Angelo) and its twin, the quartermaster storehouse, were constructed in 1868. Subsequent construction progressed slowly because building materials not available locally had to be hauled from the Gulf Coast by oxcart. An official report in 1876 stated that "a flat, treeless, dreary prairie" surrounded the fort, but Capt. Robert G. Carter recalled Fort Concho in the 1870s as "one of the most beautiful and best ordered posts on the Texas border. Its arrangement was artistic and every feature bespoke comfort and convenience. On the south side of the ample parade grounds stood the officers' quarters, tasty, elegant, imposing; on the north, the commodious and handsome barracks; on the east side the commissary and quartermaster's buildings, while the west side of the grounds was closed with an ornamental fence with a large gateway in the center." Civilian stonemasons and carpenters from the Fredericksburg area were employed in the early years of construction, and soldiers built the later buildings. The government did not buy the land on which the fort was built but leased it from private owners.