Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Breckenridge, TX

Breckenridge is a city and the county seat of Stephens County in west central Texas, at the intersection of U.S. Highways 180 and 183.

The town originated about 1854 as Picketville, named either for the post-and-clay construction of its early homes or for early rancher Bill Picket.

When Stephens County was organized in 1876, Picketville was made the county seat and renamed Breckenridge after John C. Breckinridge, the former U.S. vice president — though the spelling of his name was altered.

Oil discoveries in 1916-17 turned Breckenridge into one of the wildest boomtowns in Texas history: its population exploded from about 1,500 in January 1920 to 30,000 within a single year.

At the boom's height the Breckenridge oilfield yielded about 15 percent of all oil production in the United States, with some 200 wells drilled inside the city limits alone.

The boom quickly faded — by 1930 the population had fallen to 7,569, and by 1940 to 5,826.

In 2001 the Texas Legislature designated Breckenridge the 'Mural Capital of Texas' for the dozen large-scale murals painted around its downtown.

The 2020 census counted 5,187 people in Breckenridge, living in 2,045 households, with 63.4 percent of occupied homes owner-occupied.

Breckenridge High School's Buckaroos football program is a small-town legend: its 1958 team, coached by Emory Bellard, was voted the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's team of the century, and the Buckaroos won Class 3A state titles in 1951, 1952, 1954, and 1958.

Breckenridge is home to a West Texas campus of Texas State Technical College and to the Breckenridge Aviation Museum.