Local history
Texas Wool and Mohair Historical Markers: The Fiber Economy of the Hill Country
Six Texas historical markers trace the wool and mohair boom of the Edwards Plateau, from the first Angora goats to wool banks and wartime blanket mills.
Photo: Robert Seidel / Unsplash. Angora goats on a brushy hillside.
Drive west out of Kerrville and the land changes fast. The oaks thin out. Cedar and brush take over. Fences run for miles across rocky hills that look too thin to feed anything. Then you spot the goats. White, shaggy, picking through the brush like they own the place.
They kind of do. That brushy upland, the Edwards Plateau, once made Texas the fiber capital of the country. Wool and mohair built towns, banks, and mills out here. RoadHistorical is a Texas historical preservation platform, and this guide covers six markers that tell the fiber story. You'll find the industry's roots, the ranchers who fought for their flocks, and the money that followed the fleece.
San Angelo: Where the Fiber Economy Gathered
Sheep and Goat Industry in Texas is the best place to start. The marker traces the whole arc. Spanish explorers brought sheep to the Southwest in the 1500s. The missions relied on them for food and clothing.
The first Angora goats reached Texas in 1853 with Col. W. W. Haupt. Angoras grow mohair, a fiber prized for its shine and strength. After 1870, new markets and cheap land set off a boom. Ranchers battled disease, predators, poison plants, and drought to keep their flocks alive.
By 1974, the marker says, Texas led the nation in sheep and goats. San Angelo became the market center for the animals and their wool. Stopping here puts you at the heart of that trade.
7887 Hwy 87 South, San Angelo, TX
Find it in RoadHistorical before your visit.
George Wilkins Kendall's Sheep Range
The San Angelo marker names one man as the pioneer of modern Texas sheep ranching. His own marker stands near Kendalia. C.S.A. Home Front Producer George Wilkins Kendall tells a life that sounds made up.
Kendall co-founded the New Orleans Picayune in 1837. He rode on the doomed Texan Santa Fe Expedition and ended up in a Mexican prison. During the Mexican War he rode with the Texas Rangers and filed dispatches from the front. Then, in 1847, he settled on a sheep range at Post Oak Springs.
His columns sold Texas to the world. One mail brought him 300 letters asking about the state. He crossed coarse Mexican churro sheep with fine-wooled merinos. During the Civil War he grew wool for Confederate uniforms and blankets. He fought Comanches, range fires, and freezes to do it. When raiders threatened his shepherds, he and his teenage son tended the flocks themselves.
This marker has no street address. Use the coordinates: George Wilkins Kendall marker, Kendalia, TX.
Find it in RoadHistorical before your visit.
Rocksprings and Del Rio: Goat Records and Stock Thieves
Head deep into Edwards County and you'll reach Rocksprings. The Headquarters, American Angora Goat Breeders' Assn. marker stands here. The group formed in Missouri in 1898. It moved to Texas in 1924 and settled in Rocksprings in 1926.
That move says a lot. Texas ranchers had taken over the Angora business. The association kept the full record of Angora goats registered in the United States, plus photos of breeders and champion goats.
Find it with the coordinates: Angora Goat Breeders' Assn. marker, Rocksprings, TX.
Drive south to Del Rio for the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers' Association marker. In 1915 a wave of stock thefts hit the region. Five ranchmen called a meeting at the Princess Theater on this block. Sixty stockmen came. Thirty signed the charter, and J. B. Murrah of Del Rio became the first president.
A split later produced a rival group, the Texas Wool and Mohair Growers Association. The two merged in 1935. The headquarters eventually moved to San Angelo, closer to the center of the trade.
Find it in RoadHistorical before your visit.
From Fleece to Bank and Blanket
Wool needed buyers, storage, and mills. Two markers show where it went next. In downtown San Antonio, the T. C. Frost Wool Warehouse marker tells how a bank grew out of a wool shed.
Thomas C. Frost was a former Texas Ranger and Confederate soldier. In the 1870s he started buying wool from producers across the state. He stored it in warehouses on this site until prices rose. That let ranchers skip selling in a weak market. Frost slowly became their banker. He eventually dropped his other businesses and founded the Frost National Bank.
Out in Schleicher County, the West Texas Woolen Mills marker finishes the story. Sheep arrived in the area in 1883. By the 1930s they were everywhere. Banker Joseph B. Christian and his son Joe Muller Christian, a textile engineer, built this native stone mill.
Gov. W. Lee O'Daniel came to the grand opening in 1941. A year later the mill won a major World War II contract for Army blankets. It made the switch to postwar work and stayed a key part of the local economy. The Christians sold it in 1963.
Find it in RoadHistorical before your visit.
The numbers still back up the markers. Texas raised its first Angoras in the 1850s, but California and Oregon led mohair production through the 1860s and 1870s. By the mid-1880s, nearly 200 Texas ranchers were raising Angoras. Today Texas grows as much as 97 percent of the mohair produced in the United States. Most of it still comes off the Edwards Plateau.
How RoadHistorical Finds These Markers
Plateau roads are long and quiet, and markers are easy to miss at highway speed. Discovery Mode notifies you as you drive past a marker, so you can pull over instead of wondering what you just passed. The AI Tour Guide answers the questions a plaque can't. Ask it what a churro sheep looked like, or how mohair gets sheared.
Cell service gets thin west of Junction. Offline mode keeps the markers and their stories on your phone with no signal. Every stop you make is a small act of preservation.
Start Discovering Texas History Today
RoadHistorical is free to download on iPhone and Android. Download it here and turn on Discovery Mode before your next drive. Android users can download RoadHistorical from Google Play.
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