Nice short trip to the San Angelo and area.  I’ve chosen the featured photo above quite carefully.  In one photo, you see cotton fields, oil pumps and wind farms.  The photo was taken in southern Glasscock.  But it certainly represents the areas’ economic strengths – its’ past, present and future.

The Tom Green Courthouse is impressive, but photos aren’t allowed inside.  The Courthouses in Runnels and Reagan Counties lacked much in the way of style.  The Glasscock County Courthouse looks interesting, but is currently behind fencing – awaiting restoration.  The Coke County Courthouse is a decent representative of the 50’s modern style.  And the Irion Courthouse is a good example of moderne, from the 30’s.  The gem of the area is the Concho County Courthouse.  A Ruffini original from the 1880’s.  It has been little altered over the years (except for the courtroom).

Our first stop, however, was the retired courthouse of Irion County – in Sherwood.  Nice 1800’s building – well maintained considering it serves no official purpose anymore.  Evocative?  try the ruins of the retired Runnels County Courthouse in the ghost town of Stiles.  As far as local town photos – the only 2 I found interesting enough to photographed were Paint Rock and Ballinger.

In addition, we photographed retired jails in Glasscock and Runnels Counties.  I was later to discover that the Glasscock jail was also the first county courthouse.  We drove through Menard and took photos of what might be an historic courthouse-jail building.  And revisited the Sterling County Courthouse – as we had missed the courtroom the first time.

Enjoy – and take the journey with us.