Hutto, Texas, "Home of the Hippos"

Kizoa slideshow: Hutto, Texas, "Home of the Hippos" - Slideshow

By: Melanie Yoes
Hutto, Texas, is a thriving, historic community settled in 1855 that is located seven miles east of Round Rock, 15 miles south of Georgetown and approximately 20 miles north of Austin.

Hutto, which has experienced an explosive population increase from 1,250 persons in 2001 to 18,514 in 2010, is also known as the fastest growing city in the state of Texas, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The town’s close proximity to many major employers, including Dell, HEB, Seton Medical Center and Austin Independent School District, combined with the convenience of newly completed 130 toll road, give Hutto its official town slogan, “Conveniently Connected.” Hutto, in a nod to a famous incident in the town’s history, also goes by another name: “Home of the Hippos”.

The mascot of Hutto I.S.D. is the hippo, a character adopted by the school district in the mid-1920s after, according to local lore, a hippopotamus escaped from a circus train traveling along the local railway and led area residents on a day-long chase, prompting telegraph operators to send word to nearby towns, “Stop trains. Hippo loose in Hutto.”

In response to the city’s rapid growth and in an effort to promote tourism, the Hutto Economic Devolopment Corp. introduced a program in 2008 that allowed local business owners to buy and decorate concrete statues of hippos, which can now be seen all around town. The statues are a topic of conversation among visitors to Hutto as well as locals, who agree to disagree about which, if any, is the best- looking hippo statue around.




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Life at Texas State - Fall 2011