Our Story
Pete and Barbara Horton's home town of Nocona was once a stop on the famous Chisholm Trail cattle drive. The area later on was noted as the home of Justin cowboy boots, Nokona baseball gloves, and for the North Field oil field, which brought the oil industry to north Texas. Raised in the oil business, Pete grew up roughnecking on drilling sites. Continuing in the family tradition he and Barbara founded Peba Oil & Gas in 1986, a successful business venture which enables them to pursue their twin dream of owning an ultimate car collection and restoring the historic town of Nocona.
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Pete always loved every aspect of automobiles. As a teenager, he started his high-performance passion with a 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix. In 2011, his collection started gaining speed with the help of Pete Vicari - an affinity which first brought the Vicari Auction Company to Nocona in April 2013. The Hortons have teamed with the city of Nocona to save and restore many of the downtown buildings, several of which now house the Hortons car collections and corporate offices. Pete and Barbara's efforts continue today, providing an enormous economic boost to the revitalization of downtown Nocona and the surrounding community.
Billy Dean Dobbs is the Museum Director, responsible for maintaining and showcasing the Horton's extensive car collection. All of the cars have been restored to original condition. The engines are showroom clean, batteries are kept on chargers, and the entire rolling stock is cranked up at least twice a week. All the cars are endlessly dusted and polished, until the entire collection gleams from every angle. Billy also spends part of every day cleaning nose prints off the front windows of the museum! But don't let the "grunt work" fool you - Billy has a seemingly endless knowledge of every aspect of the cars in the Horton's collection. Billy has been involved in classic cars his entire life, with a special passion for the old cars. His love of the automobiles is evident, and as curator of the Museum, Billy's back-story on each and every automobile greatly adds to the Museum experience.
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