Tom Green County changes character from plain to plateau

Drive east or southeast from San Angelo and the country settles into the flatter Osage Plains, where cotton and grain sorghum have fit dry-land farming. Turn north, west, or far southwest and the ground rises onto the rockier Edwards Plateau, long used for sheep, goats, and cattle on native range.

The shift is not a neat painted line, but it explains a lot of the county's look. Fields open on one side; thinner soils, limestone, and grazing country take over on another. Elevation runs from roughly 1,717 to 2,480 feet, enough change to make Tom Green feel like a meeting place between two West Texas landscapes.