Eden is a friendly little town at the northwest corner of our Hill Country map, where the hills have softened into a rolling prairie, and folks seeking big-city amenities head to San Angelo instead of Austin or San Antonio. Eden is the biggest town in Concho County, and a regular stop for travelers on Highways 83 and 87, which intersect in downtown Eden.

Every town has a story to tell, and the Don Freeman Memorial Museum -- on the square in Eden, Texas – does an excellent job of illustrating the triumphs and tragedies, the heroes, the legends and the countless hours of backbreaking labor that made Eden the charming little town it is today. The museum is housed in a white brick building, donated by the widow of local rancher Don Freeman, next to the city hall on Paint Rock Street.

A series of displays provide a dramatic timeline for the county and the town; the story begins with paintings and artifacts which illustrate the ancient presence of Indians in the Concho County area, particularly at Paint Rock, where Indian pictographs gave the county seat its name. A mysterious iron shoe sole found west of Eden suggests a lost soldier from Coronado’s army nearly 500 years ago.

The U.S. Army explored the area as early as 1849, and soon the countryside was criss-crossed by roads connecting neighboring forts; the county was created by the Texas state legislature in 1858. An 1862 map shows the completely-surveyed county, though actual settlers at that time were few and far between.

A few cattlemen arrived in Concho County to take advantage of the open grassland during the 1860s, but widespread Indian raids bankrupted most in 1871; actual government of the county was not established until 1879, when the fledgling town of Paint Rock, in the county’s northeastern corner, was named county seat. Sheepmen brought huge flocks of sheep to Concho County in the early 1880s; soon the county was divided into fenced pastures. Several fine houses ...

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