Hico, Texas
HISTORY
Welcome to Hico, Texas
Where Everybody Is Somebody.
Hico, Texas is located in Hamilton County at the junctions of US Highway 281 and State Highways 6 and 220. Established in the 1850s on Honey Creek, the town moved 2.5 miles to the new Texas Central Railroad line in 1880. Hico, named for the founder's hometown in Kentucky, was incorporated in 1883 and quickly became a regional shipping center. In the 1940s, a local man named Brushy Bill Roberts claimed to be Billy the Kid, and the community put their faith in him. Today the Chamber of Commerce operates the Billy the Kid Museum.
PHOTOS
Sights Around Hico, Texas
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MAMIYA 6 & KODAK T-MAX 400
Drugs
In the late 1940s, a Hico, Texas resident named Brushy Bill Roberts, also known as O.L. Roberts, confessed to being Billy the Kid, who Lincoln County New Mexico Sheriff Pat Garrett killed in 1881.
Roberts told stories that filled in gaps in much of Billy the Kid's known life, demonstrated that he could slip out of handcuffs, and claimed that Garrett had mistakenly killed a gunslinger named Billy Barlow and buried him as Billy the Kid.
There were a few discrepancies between Roberts' claim of being Billy the Kid and known facts about Billy the Kid. For example, Roberts' niece claimed that the family Bible recorded him as being born in 1879; however, Billy the Kid was born in 1859. In addition, Billy the Kid could read and write English and was fluent in spoken Spanish, while Roberts was illiterate and barely proficient in spoken Spanish.
The Hico Chamber of Commerce opened a Billy the Kid Museum and dedicated a marker that supports Roberts' claim despite the possibility that Roberts was not Billy the Kid.
Do you think that Brushy Bill Roberts was Billy the Kid?
MAMIYA 6 & KODAK T-MAX 400
Hico Upstairs Inn On Pecan Street
The Coca-Cola sign in Hico, Texas, is painted on the side of the Hico Upstairs Inn On Pecan Street. The sign's background color is red, but it looks white because the camera had a red lens filter installed, enhancing the contrast of the black and white film.
Have you ever used black and white film to take photographs?
