Comanche, Kiowa, and Tonkawa groups occupied the area before Anglo-American settlement began in the late 1850s, with the first cabin on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River built in 1857. Established by the Texas legislature in 1858, Stephens County was not organized until 1876, with Breckenridge as county seat.
In addition to ranching, cotton farming was an early mainstay for Breckenridge until boll weevil infestations in the early twentieth century. Oil was discovered in 1916, and the Breckenridge oilfield once yielded 15 percent of all U.S. production, with 200 wells within the city limits alone. Breckenridge’s population mushroomed from 1,500 in 1920 to 30,000 in 1921. David S. Castle Company designed the 10-story former Burch Hotel (now First National Bank) at 101 E. Walker Street that was built in 1926 during the oil boom. It is still the tallest building in the county, but alterations in 1971 mutilated its exterior. By the late 1920s oil production had slowed, and Breckenridge lost two-thirds of its population.
In 2001, the Texas legislature designated Breckenridge as the “Mural Capital of Texas” for its dozen large-scale murals in the downtown area, nine of which are by airbrush artist Billy Ines.
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