San Angelo Area (El Paso, Abilene, West: for sale, to buy, shops)

[teatime]

Yep, I live in Abilene (which isn't all that far from San Angelo) and we have quite a bit of "old West" offerings. Frontier Texas! is a great start, as is the Buffalo Gap Historic Village just outside of Abilene in Buffalo Gap.

Also, there is something I REALLY want to do this year -- it's called the Fort Griffin Fandangle in Albany, just north of Abilene. Here's a quote from the brochure:

"With singing, dancing, pantomime and pageantry, it recreates the looks and feel of life in the frontier days of the Old West. Fandangle tells of the settling of the Texas frontier west of Ft. Worth."

The Dallas Morning News calls it "as professional as a multi-million dollar Broadway musical, with sets and costumes to match..."

Tickets range from $7-$20, it's held the last two weekends in June, and the website is:
New Page 1

[Cowboybootnut]

Muhnay

The Alamo was filmed in Brackettville, never been there, but it sounds like another good place. Thanks for reminding me.

There are a lot of historic forts, one in San Angelo - Fort Concho. Fort Chadbourne, Fort Phantom Hill, Fort Griffin, etc.

A person can look into Cowboy Action Shooting too.

[Muhnay]

Originally Posted by Cowboybootnut

Muhnay

The Alamo was filmed in Brackettville, never been there, but it sounds like another good place. Thanks for reminding me.

There are a lot of historic forts, one in San Angelo - Fort Concho. Fort Chadbourne, Fort Phantom Hill, Fort Griffin, etc.

A person can look into Cowboy Action Shooting too.

El Paso used to have a old western town along Montana way out.. had a steak place in it that was 5 star, also had old shoot outs and such there.. but that has been gone for some time now.. last time I remember seeing it was in 1979. Wish it was still around. Thanks for the reply by the way..

[Lone Star Rebel]

The old west place you speak of out of town on Montana was Franklintown and was owned & operated by a friend of mine, Nick Nabham. We had a store there in the old west village that sold old west items & we also took old west photos for folks. They had a big old west Hotel/Saloon that served the steaks & they had a theatre there that use to put on some fine old west shows & gunfights. The old west town didn't do so well in it's latter days & Nick ended up selling the place to some investors from Florida who moved the entire town further east to some whole-in-the-wall area & it went belly up. I always thought they took advantage of old Nick but, that's another story. The Steak House that Nick ran there on the front of the property still served steaks after the town was sold & moved. I haven't been back in a few years so I can't tell you if the steak house is still there or not. Nick's wife became quite ill & he spent most of his time caring for her so, I'm not sure what ever became of the resturant. Steaks? Yeah, ole' Nick had some of the finest steaks this old cowboy ever ate! As a matter of fact, Franklintown was just a three minute drive from my ranch we owned there in El Paso. You may remember our little store there, it was called Bitter Creek Ranch Mercantile & I still have the original sign in my garage I believe. Perhaps I can find some old photos of the store & old west village to post here for you folks.

As for other old west activities there, we did a lot of events in El Paso & as far west as Julian, CA where we were part of the Julian cast know as the Julian Doves & Desperados. We have attended regular events in Tombstone, Yuma and some other towns along the way in the old west part of this great nation. As a matter of fact, a few of us have actually starred in a few documentories about the old west. That was a ton of fun there folks.

OK, getting back to San Angelo. I like the town a great deal personally. The city puts a lot of attention & detail into it's parks & recreation. The Visitor's Center is real nice there on the River Walk and the River Walk itself is quite nice to visit & walk along the river in the evenings or early mornings. This is also a great place to do your bike riding you mentioned. I have heard there are some nice bike trails out in the area they call the Bluffs but, I have personally never been there so I can't confirm that?

San Angelo still has that small town feel to it yet we have all the things one would see & expect in the larger cities. New business' are cropping up all the time and the town is slowly growing. We have two Super Walmarts here which most folks enjoy and a nice mall that's a cool place to hang to get out of the heat. We don't have much crime compared to the bigger cities but, we do have our share just the same. I don't think there's a town anywhere in the good ole' USA that doesn't have crime.

Oh yeah, there's Lake Nasworthy that seems to have a lot of water activities & fishing if you're into that sort of thing as well. There's another lake near by but, the name escapes me at the moment? There's a nice KOA Campground out near the lake and there is also another privately owned campground & RV Park on the back side of the lake. It's a pretty nice place as well. Darn, I can't remember the name of that place either. Getting old ain't all it's cracked up to be, lol.

The Mayor is spending a lot of time & money to revitalize the downtown area & bring business back to downtown. There is an old town section (not very big) just off Concho Ave there near Fort Concho but, not much seems to go on there. They do a lot at the fort when it comes to the Cavalry re-enactments but, not much in the way of old west type things. I guess as one said earlier, there just ain't much of that here in Texas anymore.

All in all, San Angelo is a good town & I just need to get out more & enjoy it. There are plenty of concerts on the river, the art museums and the like to keep you busy for a weekend visit but, as a local... there just ain't a whole bunch unless you're into bar hopping & that's just not my cup of tea anymore. We do have the San Angelo Colts ball team if you're into the sports venue & then there is ASU. I hear it's one of the finest universities in the state. We have two fabulous hospitals (from personal experience), some fine doctors and real estate is still fairly cheap in the San Angelo area. You can find something from $50K to $1 mil. if you're looking. We have a great civic center and there's always something going on at the San Angelo Convention Center. The rodeo is real popular here and there's always the Chicken Farm off M.L.K. that offers some fine art, good ole' fashion country pickin' and just plain old family fun.

If you have anymore questions, please don't hesitate to ask & I'll do my best to cover them for you. If I don't have the answer right off, I'm sure I can get it pretty quick. I'll have to look into this Abilene thing a bit more. Thanks for the input.

[Muhnay]

I hope you post them pictures, I sure would love to see them. All I have are memories of the place. My Family would go there quite often.. so I am sure we have met one time or another. I will agree thats why I said the place was 5 star because them steaks were the best I have ever had.

Yeah I was quite impressed with San Angelo myself, and I only spent a few hours there on my way to Corpus and the gulf coast. I live in El Paso, and get tired of the heat and desert.. but San Angelo was far greener than El Paso is, and the river running though town like that is something I wish El Paso would of done. It was very nice.. I could see myself living in San Angelo, it reminded me of El Paso in my youth, and that is the fondest memories I have of this place. Not like it is today.

Thank you for your post.. you brought back some great memories, and I look forward to visiting and spending more time in San Angelo, to explore and who knows make it my new home.

[Lone Star Rebel]

Well, San Angelo would love to have you pard. If you think you're headed this way sometime, give me a shout via DM and perhaps we can hook up.

I have to agree with you that El Paso has changed over the years. This is the biggest reason we sold the ranch & got out of Dodge. The taxes had increased so much & the illegals situation was so out of hand, I figured it was time to get while the gettin' was good. I do miss some things about El Paso but, very little sorry to say.

[Lone Star Rebel]

Here's a few shots of old Franklin Town east of El Paso on Montana. I hope you enjoy them. In the first photograph, the little store second from the right was our store. The last photo shows the theatre & where they originally served the steak meals & old west shows on stage. It was truly a great experience. They later built the steak house up front on the main property which you will see in later photos.

[Lone Star Rebel]

Here are some photos of the place just before it was torn apart & relocated. This was truly a sad day!

[Lone Star Rebel]

Here are some shots of our little store there at Old Franklin Town. It was called, Bitter Creek Ranch Mercantile.

[Lone Star Rebel]

Here's a nice portrait of me & the little lady. You may recognize us? I sure do miss that little woman!