The Railroad Made San Angelo a Wool-and-Mohair Market

Sheep reached the San Angelo country in the 1870s. The turning point came in September 1888, when the Santa Fe railroad gave ranchers a direct line to distant buyers. Wool warehouses opened in San Angelo that same year. They sorted, stored, and sold clips brought in from the surrounding ranch country.

Tom Green County did not lead the region in sheep numbers. San Angelo became the market town anyway. In the early years, more than a million pounds of wool moved through the city each year. From 1923 to 1929, annual wool and mohair shipments climbed from about 5 million pounds to 17 million pounds.

That trade changed the city as much as the ranches. Warehouses, wool-cleaning plants, slaughterhouses, rail sidings, and sales firms grew around the wool clip. In the twentieth century, San Angelo became a leading national wool-and-mohair market. It also became home to the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association. The old trade still explains a lot of San Angelo's story: the animals were raised across the plateau, but the business came to town.