Robert Thomas Hill

Hill quit school in the sixth grade, orphaned at five and raised by a strict Methodist grandmother. At Comanche he worked every job at his brother's newspaper, the Comanche Chief, rode as a cowboy on the Dodge City trail and collected rocks and fossils until people called him the rock boy. He worked his way through Cornell. He named the Lower Cretaceous Comanche Series for the town and named the Balcones fault zone. In 1921 his testimony in the Texas-Oklahoma boundary suit helped win Texas some 450,000 acres along the Red River. He died in Dallas in 1941.

What the plaque says

Hill, Robert Thomas Tennessee native Robert T. Hill (185801941) moved to Comanche, Texas at age 16 and developed an interest in Texas Geology. Educated at Columbia University, he worked for the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Texas and as State Geologist. Known as the father of Texas Geology, he identified many of the state's geological features and regions. In 1899, he and five others surveyed the Rio Grande. Beginning in Presidiio, the team charted the river's path through steep canyons and periolous obstacles. After 350 miles of river travel, the men saw a landmark eagle's nest and at that point ended their trip and hiked into Langtry. Hill's work was the first to document the Rio Grande through the Trans-Pecos region of Texas. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center — 1.0 mi
  The state travel center at Langtry, built around the saloon where Roy Bean held court as justice of the peace for twenty years, in a town named for a railroad foreman.
• Pecos River Overlook — 14 mi
  A roadside pullout at the east end of the US-90 bridge, looking down into the gorge that made the Pecos a barrier for travelers and a byword for the edge of the law.
• Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site — 16 mi
  The state park west of Comstock where rangers lead visitors down to Fate Bell Shelter and its Pecos River-style paintings, some three to four thousand years old.
• Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center — 24 mi
  The Comstock research center that documents the Lower Pecos murals, which it calls the oldest books in North America, and opens its headquarters to visitors four days a week.

More markers nearby

• Eagle's Nest — steps away
• The Fitzsimmons-Maher Prizefight — 0.2 mi
• Langtry School — 0.3 mi
• The Torres Family — 0.3 mi