Day Trips: The Lady in Blue, San Angelo

The Lady in Blue once again appears over the Concho River in San Angelo.

The legend of the apparition that appeared to the Native Americans in what is now West Texas has intrigued theologians and historians since it was first reported in 1629.

The Jumano people were once numerous in Southwestern Texas. They farmed and hunted in the river valleys and established significant villages near what is now Presidio and on the Concho River.

Whether the Jumanos asked the Spanish friars for a mission to get protection from the Apaches or from Satan is a matter of some conjecture. When asked why they wanted a mission, the natives replied that a young woman dressed in blue robes came to them in visions. The woman preached to them in their own language, telling them to summon the priests in New Mexico to baptize them. The Jumanos impressed the friars by displaying the proper religious behavior when shown the crucifixes.

In Spain, the story of the Jumanos' miraculous conversion collided with the story of Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda. The cloistered Spanish nun reported visions of repeated visits to the New World, where she ministered to the native people.

A legend of the bluebonnets says that on the morning after the Lady in Blue's last visit, the Jumanos woke to a field of flowers the color of her cloak.

The Lady in Blue statue is in a forested section of Bart DeWitt Park on the north side of the Concho River near the South Oakes Street bridge in downtown San Angelo. The bronze statue done by San Angelo native Vic Payne was unveiled in 2018, and landscaping work was recently completed.

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1,597th in a series. Follow “Day Trips & Beyond,” a travel blog, at austinchronicle.com/daily/travel.