THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST 
Vol. V. JUNE, 1890. No. 6. 
A GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE CONCHO COUNTRY, 
STATE OF TEXAS. 
By Professor W. F. Cummins and Dr. Otto Lerch. 
The country takes its name from the rivers traversing it. 
About twenty years ago it was the hunting ground of the Le- 
pan Indians, Kickapoos, Comanches and Kiowas. In 1868 
the U. S. Government erected a post on the banks of the North 
Concho river which became the nucleus of the settlement and 
the prosperity of this country. It soon became noted to the 
stockmen for its many varieties of nutritious grasses and its 
abundance of water. Settlement advanced so rapidly that on 
the 13th of March, 1874, a new county was organized contain- 
ing 13,000 square miles, which was called Tom Green, in honor 
of the famous general of the confederacy, a son and citizen of 
the State of Texas. This county was situated west of the 100 
meridian, between 31st and 32nd parallels of north latitude, 
east of the Pecos and south of the Colorado rivers. Recent 
Legislatures have divided this vast area into six new counties- 
The eastern half of old Tom Green county, embracing the 
new counties of Arion, Coke and Tom Green, is now generally 
known as "The Concho Country," and is the subject of the 
following report. In less than twenty years this country has 
passed through the different stages of human civilization ; the 
stockman has succeeded the hunter, and the farmer is succeed- 
ing the stockman. 
