Concho River

Map of the Concho River and associated watershed

This article is about the river in western-central Texas, a tributary of the Colorado River in Texas. For the river in Mexico, tributary of the Rio Grande, see Conchos River.

The Concho River in San Angelo, Texas

The Concho River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. It has three primary feeds: the North, Middle, and South Concho Rivers. The North Concho River is the longest fork, starting in Howard County and traveling southeast for 88 mi (142 km) until merging with the South and Middle forks near Goodfellow Air Force Base at San Angelo, Texas. The combined branches of the river flow east about 58 mi (93 km) until it eventually empties into the Colorado River about 12 mi (19 km) east of Paint Rock, Texas.

Concho is Spanish for "shell"; the river was so named due to its abundance of freshwater mussels, such as the Tampico pearlymussel (Cyrtonaias tampicoensis). The Spanish explored the river in the 1650s for the gem-quality purple to pink pearls produced by that species. The mussels were systematically harvested for only a short time because it was soon realized that the yield of pearls was too low for their harvest to be economically viable.

External links

• North Concho River from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Southwest Paddler report on Concho River