Ben Ficklin: Drowned County Seat

Five miles south of San Angelo on the South Concho River, there is almost nothing left of Ben Ficklin, the original county seat of Tom Green County. Major Benjamin Ficklin established his headquarters here in eighteen sixty-eight for his San Antonio to El Paso mail line, and when the county organized in eighteen seventy-four, his town became the seat of government. By eighteen eighty-two a two-story stone courthouse was complete and about six hundred people called Ben Ficklin home.

Then on the morning of August twenty-fourth, eighteen eighty-two, heavy rains sent Dove Creek, Spring Creek, and the South Concho roaring out of their banks simultaneously. The floodwaters destroyed the town and drowned sixty-five people. County records were moved to what was then called San Angela, which became the new county seat the following year and eventually renamed San Angelo.

Ben Ficklin has not come back.