Cotulla, Texas

Immigrant Joseph Cotulla, who was reared in Silesia, then a part of Prussia, migrated to the United States in the 1850s. He joined the Union Army in Brownsville, Texas. He lived in Atascosa County, but arrived in La Salle County in 1868^[7] to establish what became a large ranching operation. After learning that the International-Great Northern Railroad intended to lay tracks in La Salle County, he worked to establish the town that bears his name.

In 1881, Cotulla donated 120 acres of his land to the railroad, and in 1882, a depot was constructed there. In 1883, the town was granted a post office. The same year, Cotulla became the county seat by special election.^[8]

In 1928, after completing his freshman year at Southwest Texas State Teachers College, Lyndon Baines Johnson taught 5th, 6th, and 7th graders at the Welhausen School. He commented when he returned in 1965:

I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in that little Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of those children because they were too poor. And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this Nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained closed to any American. So here, today, back on the campus of my youth, that door is swinging open far wider than it ever did before.^[9]

Joseph Cotulla's great-grandson, William Lawrence Cotulla (born around 1936), a former storekeeper in Cotulla, is a rancher in La Salle, Dimmit, and Webb Counties. In a 2013 interview with the Laredo Morning Times, William Cotulla noted the community of his birth has changed completely in less than 80 years, having gone through several phases, beginning with emphasis on farming, then ranching, thereafter hunting leases, and now petroleum and natural gas through the Eagle Ford Shale boom.^[7] With declining gasoline prices, though, the Eagle Ford boom took a sharp downturn by the fall of 2015.^[10]

In 1973, two railroad locomotives collided in Cotulla, and three people were killed as a result.^[11] In 2008, the area around Cotulla burned in a huge grass fire.^{[citation needed]}

Cotulla is located at 28°26′3″N 99°14′11″W (28.434144, –99.236343). This is 81 mi (147 km) southwest of San Antonio.^[12]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.0 square miles (5.2 km²), all land. The Nueces River flows through southern Cotulla in a southeastward direction to the Gulf of Mexico, near Corpus Christi.

Cotulla has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSh) with very hot summers and mild winters. The all-time record high of 116 °F (47 °C) was recorded on June 28th, 1902 and June 19th & 21st, 2023, whilst the all-time record low of 16 °F (-9 °C) was recorded on January 9th, 2010 and February 18th, 2021.^[13]

Cotulla is governed by a five-member city council and a mayor. The La Salle County Courthouse in downtown Cotulla has undergone extensive renovation.

• Cotulla is within the Cotulla Independent School District. Cotulla High School, with grades 9–12, is located east of town. The modern structure is divided into several noncontiguous units.^{[citation needed]}

• Josh Beckett, retired Major League Baseball pitcher, owns Herradura Ranch, a 7,000-acre (28 km²) deer-hunting enclave located about 28 miles (45 km) from Cotulla
• Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, was the wealthiest person in the world, as of December 2017. His maternal ancestors were settlers who lived in Texas. Over the generations, the family acquired a 25,000-acre (100 km²) ranch in Cotulla.^[20]
• John Lewis Gaddis, known as the "Dean of Cold War Historians", was born in Cotulla in 1941.
• O. Henry, the short story writer, lived on a sheep ranch near Cotulla in the early 1880s with the successful goal of improving his health in the dry climate.
• Lyndon B. Johnson, U.S. President, taught public school in Cotulla from 1928 to 1929.^[21]
• Hailey Kinsel, three-time world champion barrel racer, was born and raised on her parents' cattle ranch near Cotulla.^[22]
• Phil Lyne, a former rodeo cowboy and 1979 ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee, resides in Cotulla.^[23]
• J.B. Mauney, an American professional rodeo cowboy who specializes in bull riding, competes in the Professional Bull Riders and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, and is a two-time PBR World Champion in 2013 and 2015, resides in Cotulla.^[24]
• Kevin Patrick Yeary, judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, was born in Cotulla and raised in Laredo.^[25]