SAN ANGELO, TX -- Tilly Chandler is a force of nature. She is one of the people responsible for the preservation and promotion of Ft. Concho, the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts and many other historic landmarks in San Angelo.
And Chandler is passionate about the history of San Angelo and preserving it. During a groundbreaking ceremony Friday evening along the Concho River behind the former Western Mattress building, Tilly deftly led a team of 30 plus folks in a groundbreaking ceremony for what will become one of the earliest documented historic events in the San Angelo area.
Long before there was a Fort Concho, long before European explorers and settlers made their way to Texas in the 1800’s, native american Indians lived along the banks of the Concho River and its tributaries. Some of those native people were Jumano Indians.
According to Chandler and many others, the Jumanos were a peaceful tribe which lived and thrived along the convergence of the three rivers which now are in downtown San Angelo.
The Jumano’s story includes teaching from a “Lady in Blue” about Christianity. At the same time in Agreda, Spain a nun would fall into trances and tell of visiting indigenous peoples along the banks of a river.
There is even a pictograph of a Lady in Blue at Paint Rock.
Friday’s groundbreaking was for two statues. One of the Lady in Blue and the other of a Jumano Brave. World renowned bronze sculptor Vic Payne designed and forged the statues and will unveil them on Sunday May 20.
There is a Musical Ballet of the Lady in Blue on Friday May 18 in the Murphey Performance Hall followed by a Marian conference at the McNease Convention Center on Saturday May 19. Chandler says there will be visitors from Spain, the Vatican in Rome, Canada and across the United States for the formal dedication of the Lady in Blue statues.
Chandler is assisting Vatican officials in pursuing the case for sainthood for the Lady in Blue.
!["Fear" - Oil painting by Avery Nunez](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_compact_extra_large/public/2024-11/fear-oilpaintingbyaverynunez.jpg?h=bec4f437&itok=E8KC02KU ""Fear" - Oil painting by Avery Nunez")
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First it was the imagination of Dr. Ralph Chase and Bishop Pfeiffer who gave us the myth of the origins of the name “Santa Angela.” They, completely without any credible evidence, tried to tie the name to some obsecure medieval Italian nun. A better story is that the founder of San Angelo, Bart Dewitt, simply named the town for his recently deceased wife, Angela (without a thought of some obsecure nun). Now this group wants to foist the ridiculous yarn of the “Lady in Blue” on our community. What would Jesus say? Why do we continue to allow Catholics to erect thier shrines on public lands?
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PermalinkMuch history from this region is distorted... Ever look into the history of Chief Lone Wolf? Almost every shred of the localized version of the tale says that Lone Wolf bridge is said to haunted by his spirit who is searching for his son... Spirits are supposed to kind of "linger" around places of significance right?
Why would Chief Lone Wolf be interested in the bridge area then? His son was killed near Kickapoo Springs in Edwards County. Not to mention Lone Wolf died near Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Still there are folks who swear the place is haunted by him, it makes me laugh.
I've been fishing down there numerous times and never had anything out of the ordinary happen... I even read of a "bigfoot" sighting near the fence for the water treatment plant down there.
Some people thrive off of that kind of stuff, we'll change some details about history so it can entertain us...
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/flo09
I found an old farm tool up the river from the South Pool of Twin Buttes one time. I did a little research and discovered that there was an early farm along the banks back in "the day" and saw on an archaeological report a picture of said tool... I think it was an early rake.
The 2014 storm that filled up our Lake in a matter of 2 days must have swept it down river somewhere because I left it right where it was and it wasn't there when I came back after the rains. There's also evidence of the early Indian's that can be found... Groupings of mortar holes in rocks and things of that nature... Here's a ridiculously large survey of the area. Pages 91,92,93,94,95,96,167,193 have some pictures from the area, the area is chock full of fragments of it's time.
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1020&context=ita
Remember, we now live in a "politically correct" society that want's religious pluralism... I don't find Catholicism to be any more attractive than you do, too many deviations from biblical doctrine, but they do have the legal ability to erect these statues. Honestly, I get your frustration, but this stuff only happens because we as Christians let it over the years. It will take years to repair if we get that long.
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