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Business View Magazine
San Angelo, Texas
Meeting challenges head-on
The city of San Angelo, Texas, is located in the west-
central part of the state and has a population of about
100,000. The area was first settled by European-
Americans in 1867, when thousands of migrants be-
gan moving west after the Civil War. To protect these
new homesteaders, the federal government estab-
lished a series of forts, one of which was Fort Concho,
located at the confluence of the North, Middle, and
South forks of the Concho River.
Almost as soon as the first Army units arrived, a small
village called Santa Angela came to life nearby, grew
into a community and ultimately became a center of
trade for the surrounding ranchers and farmers. Fort
Concho was abandoned in 1889, but the renamed city
of San Angelo continued to grow into the 19th century
and beyond. The military returned during World War II,
when the Army Air Corps established a training base
there. Today, Goodfellow Air Force Base, the area’s
largest employer, still provides military intelligence
training and a firefighting school for the Air Force,
Army, Navy, and Marines.
San Angelo also serves as the trade and services hub
