Site of Pickettville

Among the herds penned in Pickettville's old corrals were John Hittson's. The Handbook of Texas follows him from first sheriff of Palo Pinto County to the wealthiest man in his region by 1865, branding unclaimed cattle and marketing them in Mexico. In 1866 he drove cattle by the Middle Concho valley to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and later moved his herds to Colorado. He died there on Christmas Day 1880, thrown from a wagon behind a runaway team. The Handbook calls Pickettville the county's first civilian settlement.

What the plaque says

Site of Pickettville First civilian settlement in Runnels County. Founded 1862 by frontiersmen whose picket houses and corrals gave place its name. Original settlers included Mr. and Mrs. John W. Guest and three sons; Henry and R. K. Wylie, their cowboys and Negro servant; Mrs. Felicia Gordon and five sons. In 1862, "Rich" Coffey's family also moved here. Indian hostilities of Civil War years (1861-65) caused these ranchers to band together for protection. In 1866, they left with cattle for open range. Their picket corrals later penned the trail herds of John Hittson, John and Joseph Henderson, and others. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnegie Library of Ballinger — 1.9 mi
  A 1909 limestone library with an Ionic portico in a railroad town the Santa Fe created in 1886, one of the few Texas Carnegie libraries still working in its original building.
• Z. I. Hale Museum and Rock Hotel — 15 mi
  A free museum in a Winters optometrist's office, a 1909 railroad hotel and a 1927 implement dealership, with Rogers Hornsby's hometown memorabilia and a 1912 horse-drawn cotton picker.
• Fort Chadbourne — 28 mi
  An 1852 infantry post and Butterfield stage station on a Coke County ranch, its fallen stone buildings rebuilt since 1999 by the descendant of the family that has ranched the land since 1877.

More markers nearby

• Runnels County — 1.7 mi
• Ballinger — 1.8 mi
• Charles H. Noyes — 1.8 mi
• Colorado River Ferry Crossing — 1.9 mi