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Dilley, Texas

Everything Dilley is known for

2 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Dilley. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

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Music in Dilley

Songs About Dilley

Rio Grande
Austin Meade & Treaty Oak Revival
54%
"Even hit up Dilley and Crystal City"
the interstate 35 waltz
garret t. capps & justin boyd
10%

Artists From Dilley

B
Braydon Foster
latin

Rivers & Roads in Song near Dilley

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Dilley.

Interstate 35 45 songs Frio River 13 songs Nueces River 3 songs

Musical Heritage

George Strait Tonight, Five Dollars RoadyGoat

While George Strait was a student at Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, he and the Ace in the Hole Band worked the honky tonks of South Texas, and one of them was the Wishing Well Club here in Pearsall. A woman who grew up in Pearsall told the San Antonio Express-News that when she was in high school, in seventy nine, eighty and eighty one, George would be out there on the weekends. They'd drive by, and the marquee would say George Strait tonight, five dollars. And they'd say, not him again. She said they were outraged that they had to pay five dollars to see George, again. To her, he was just a guy from the neighborhood. Strait remembered those years the same way. At Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos, the band played Wednesday nights for fifty cents at the door, ladies free, and one night they left a club with seven dollars apiece in their pockets. But, he said, they always got the beer free.

RoadyGoat → · 15.6 mi away

Everybody's Eighth Grade Math Teacher RoadyGoat

George Strait's father, John Byron Strait, was raised in Pearsall. He served in the Army during World War Two, then came home and taught math in the Pearsall schools for more than thirty years. When George's parents divorced while he was in grade school, his father raised George and his older brother, Buddy. A woman who grew up here told the San Antonio Express-News, laughing, that Mr. Strait was everybody's eighth grade math teacher for a long time, and that they all went to the Baptist church together. John Strait died in Pearsall on the fourth of June, two thousand thirteen, at ninety one. That summer the Texas Legislature passed a resolution for him, and its first line says the Legislature joins the citizens of Pearsall in mourning his loss.

RoadyGoat → · 15.6 mi away

Married Twice RoadyGoat

George Strait and Norma went to high school together here in Pearsall, and he has called her the first girl he ever loved. In December of nineteen seventy one, when he was nineteen and she was seventeen, they ran off to Mexico and eloped. Strait told Texas Monthly that he and Norma then had to marry twice, because after eloping they repeated the ceremony in a Texas church to pacify their parents. He went into the Army soon after, and she joined him in Hawaii. Fifty years to the day after they eloped, on the fourth of December, twenty twenty one, Strait told the story to a crowd in Las Vegas. He was nineteen, he said, and he knew this girl, Norma, and they went to Mexico and eloped. Then he sang I Cross My Heart.

RoadyGoat → · 15.6 mi away

The Farm Report Kid RoadyGoat

George Strait did not grow up on country radio. His father taught math here in Pearsall, and Strait remembered that on weekends and summers they'd head to the family ranch, listening mostly to the news and the farm report. What changed him was the Army. He served from nineteen seventy one to nineteen seventy five, the last two years in Hawaii, where he sang with an Army sponsored country band called Rambling Country. He told Texas Monthly he never considered music as a career until the Army sent him to Hawaii. When he got out in nineteen seventy five, he enrolled at Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, he said, because it would leave him more free time for music. On the thirteenth of October that year, he played his first show with the Ace in the Hole Band.

RoadyGoat → · 15.6 mi away

The Frio in All My Ex's RoadyGoat

Frio County takes its name from the Frio River, which runs just west of Pearsall, and frio is Spanish for cold. In nineteen eighty seven, George Strait took All My Ex's Live in Texas to number one. It was written by Whitey Shafer and Lyndia Shafer, and in Shafer's original version, the river in the song was the Brazos. By the time Strait recorded it, the river was the Frio, the same river this county is named for. Shafer once said of writing it, I was kinda writing my biography, I changed the names to protect the guilty.

RoadyGoat → · 15.6 mi away

The Math Teacher's Son, by the Numbers RoadyGoat

For the son of a Pearsall math teacher, here are some numbers. Billboard credits George Strait with the most number one singles of any artist in any genre, starting with Fool Hearted Memory in nineteen eighty two. On the seventh of June, two thousand fourteen, one hundred four thousand, seven hundred ninety three people packed AT and T Stadium in Arlington for the final show of his farewell tour, the largest indoor concert North America had ever seen, breaking a record the Rolling Stones set in nineteen eighty one. Then on the fifteenth of June, twenty twenty four, one hundred ten thousand, nine hundred five people filled Kyle Field at Texas A and M, the largest ticketed concert ever held in the United States. Strait told the crowd he was ashamed to say it was his first time ever in Kyle Field.

RoadyGoat → · 15.6 mi away

Rope Every Day RoadyGoat

George Strait grew up working his family's ranch, but he says he didn't get bitten by the competitive team roping bug until his early twenties. He tried teaching himself first, and told Team Roping Journal that he picked up a few bad habits he was still working on. Team roping is my passion, he said, and when he's home, he tries to rope every day. In nineteen eighty two, George and his brother Buddy, the two boys their father raised here in Pearsall, started a small family roping. It grew into the George Strait Team Roping Classic. And he has said his biggest roping accomplishment was winning with his son, Bubba.

RoadyGoat → · 15.6 mi away

History of Dilley

Dilley, TX RoadyGoat

Dilley is a place where the mesquite trees stubbornly hold their ground against the Texas sun, and where the roar of I-35 is a constant, low hum in the background. It might seem like just another small town you pass through on your way somewhere else, but Dilley holds its own stories. You can feel the history in the air, a sense of deep roots and close ties. It's a place where Friday night lights shine bright on the Dilley Wolves, and the whole town seems to gather to cheer them on. And every now and then, one of our own goes on to make a name for themselves.

Engineering the Winter Garden RoadyGoat

As you look at the dry-looking brush country around Dilley, it’s hard to picture this area as a lush garden. But for a time, it was. The transformation was a feat of hydrology and engineering. In the early 1900s, developers realized that a vast, hidden resource lay beneath this land: the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, a massive underground formation of water-bearing sand. The STEM challenge was getting the water out. Using the technology of the day—steam-powered and then gasoline-powered pumps—they drilled hundreds of wells. They engineered canals and irrigation systems to spread the water across thousands of acres. This completely re-engineered the local ecology, allowing them to grow thirsty crops like Bermuda onions and spinach in the middle of a semi-arid region. It was this mastery of groundwater hydrology that created the 'Winter Garden of Texas' and fueled Dilley’s first economic boom, all based on the science of bringing underground water to the surface.

RoadyGoat →

The Courthouse That Lost a Floor RoadyGoat

The buff-brick building anchoring the square in the center of Pearsall is the Frio County Courthouse, and it doesn't quite look the way it was born. San Antonio architect Henry T. Phelps designed it in the Renaissance Revival style, and it was completed in 1904, a confident three-story statement that the county seat had truly arrived. A tall central tower once rose over the north side, and a hipped roof capped the whole thing. Then time and budgets went to work. In the 1930s, during a wave of remodeling, the courthouse lost its entire third floor and its hipped roof, and the windows were swapped out; further alterations followed in 1950. What stands today is a lower, plainer two-story version of Phelps's original, its grand tower long gone. It's a common Texas story, a turn-of-the-century courthouse trimmed down to save money over the decades, but it means the building you see has quietly shed some of its old ambition. Look at an old photo of the original three-story design and you'll realize Pearsall's courthouse used to reach a good deal higher. (Source: 254 Texas Courthouses; Texas Escapes.)

RoadyGoat → · 15.3 mi away

Japanese Macaque

1972

Japanese macaques, commonly known as snow monkeys, are native to Japan, but a population has lived in South Texas since the 1970s. These primates' thick fur enables them to withstand harsh winters and ranges in color from shades of gray to yellowish brown to brown. They have hairless faces and pinkish-red posteriors. Males are taller and heavier than females. The average male weighs approximately twenty-five pounds and stands almost two feet tall, while the average female weighs roughly eighteen pounds and stands approximately twenty inches tall. Japanese macaques reside in the subtropical to subalpine deciduous and evergreen forests on three of Japan's four main islands (Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu) and a few smaller islands, including the mountainous region known as Arashiyama near Kyoto. There are two subspecies of the primates- M. f. fuscata and M. f. yuakui . M. f. fuscata , the mainland subspecies, was the one brought to Texas; M. f. yuakui is restricted to the island of Yakushima. In 1966 the troop of monkeys in Arashiyama had grown to between 150 and 200 members and soon broke into two smaller groups, Arashiyama A-troop and B-troup. The A-troop extended its range into the suburbs of Kyoto, and the primates were regarded as a nuisance to residents there. After six years of searching for a new home, to save them from destruction in Kyoto, the troop known as Arashiyama A, consisting of approximately 150 animals, was transferred to a ranch near Encinal in La Salle County in South Texas in 1972. Many transplanted primates died in the unfamiliar dry brush country during the early years. The U.S. government listed the monkeys as threatened in 1976.The Japanese macaques, however, eventually adapted to their new environment and learned to forage for the readily available cactus fruits, mesquite beans, and other foods. In 1980 the South Texas Primate Observatory purchased the primates and moved them to a ranch near Dilley in Frio County, where they resided in an enclosed ranch-style environment and could roam with minimum human interference. By the late 1980s the South Texas population of Japanese macaques had increased to more than 500. The monkeys' enclosure fell into disrepair because of a lack of funding and several escaped. No longer enclosed within physical barriers, the primate population ranged over 250 acres of brush country ranchland and foraged on native vegetation, row crops, and feed pilfered from area ranches and farms. Neighbors called the authorities to complain about feral monkeys damaging property outside the observatory. Even though the troop's leader was reportedly killed by a wild cat (a bobcat or cougar), the population remained between 500 and 600 individuals. The troop had to be relocated on two more occasions until it finally ended up on another site in Dilley that became known as the Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary. In 1994 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that the Dilley troop of macaques was not a protected species, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department confirmed that there was no state or federal law prohibiting the shooting of feral macaques because they were classified as an "exotic unprotected species." At this time the U.S. Department of Agriculture pressured for improvements to the Dilley facility and cited its failures to provide adequate housing for the snow monkeys or to build a secure perimeter fence. Public outcry arose in 1996 when hunters shot four escaped macaques, and there were calls for a new sanctuary. Consequently, entertainer Wayne Newton hosted a fundraiser in San Antonio to raise awareness and money for their cause. Eventually a new 185-acre sanctuary, the Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary, near Dilley was established. The larger more secure facility consisted of an electrified enclosure where the macaques could forage through vegetation, sleep in trees, swim in water tanks, and exist within a social unit. The Animal Protection Institute assumed management of the Texas Snow M

Tsha Handbook →

William A. Waugh

1849

(1832-1901) An Ohio native who found gold in California in 1849, William A. Waugh settled near the Cibolo Creek Crossing on the Laredo-San Antonio Road in 1856, before La Salle County was created. Waugh served briefly as a Texas Ranger during the border raids called the Cortina War. He was also a merchant, district court clerk, and justice of the peace. Father of three daughters and a son, Waugh contributed significantly to progress in this locality.

Historical Marker → · 6.8 mi away

Frio Town, TX

1871

Frio Town, originally known as Frio City, was a frontier community off Farm Road 140 immediately south of the Presidio Crossing of the Frio River, sixteen miles northwest of Pearsall in northwest Frio County. The Presidio Crossing, on the Old San Antonio Road , was so named because numerous cannonballs, swords, and sabers were found there. Juan de Ugalde in the eighteenth century, Antonio López de Santa Anna in 1836, and Adrián Woll in 1842 are thought to have used the crossing. The town was laid out by A. L. Odin in 1871. The first mail was delivered to the community on horseback from Benton City; later it arrived from San Antonio by stage. Frio City became the first county seat of Frio County in 1871. Builder L. J. W. Edwards used cypress shingles carted from Leakey to complete the first courthouse in January 1872. The same year a stone jail was constructed; in time it housed such famous personages as Sam Bass , Jesse and Frank James, and William Sydney Porter . The high cost of obtaining building materials from outside led to the establishment of a cypress-shingle mill, brick factory, and limekiln in the community. A Frio City post office was established in 1872 with James McClain Elledge as the first postmaster. Levi J. W. Edwards was the first merchant. The county's first school was in a private home. A local Masonic lodge was established during the 1870s. The courthouse burned in 1877, and a new two-story native stone building was constructed with the financial assistance of local resident W. J. Slaughter; it reportedly had an ornate walnut staircase. Comanche Indian raids in the mid-1870s triggered a call for the Texas Rangers and caused many frightened settlers to seek refuge in town. The last Indian foray in the area occurred during the spring of 1877. Frio City was a "cowboy capital" and outpost cultural center during the 1870s. Estimates of its population in the early 1880s reach as high as 1,500. Evangelists John Wesley DeVilbiss and Andrew Jackson Potter preached in the area; the Rio Grande Baptist Association was organized at the courthouse in 1880. That year the International-Great Northern Railroad was extended through Frio County and missed Frio City. In the summer of 1881 Pearsall was established on the route, after which a general exodus from Frio City to Pearsall ensued. In 1883 Pearsall became the county seat, and in 1886 the name Frio City was changed to Frio Town. The courthouse was purchased in 1884 by W. Yancey Kilgore. It subsequently housed a general store, the post office, and in 1884 Frio Academy. By 1890 the population was estimated at 100. In 1906 seventeen pupils attended the two-teacher Frio Academy. By 1914 Frio Town had telephone connections, a general store, and six cattle breeders. In 1929 the community comprised the school and five dwellings. The old courthouse was the site of the Rio Grande Baptist Association's fiftieth anniversary celebration in June 1930. By 1953 Mrs. A. C. Roberts owned most of the structures of the generally abandoned townsite, including the courthouse and roofless jailhouse. The population of Frio Town remained constant at an estimated twenty throughout the 1960s and increased to forty-nine in 1969. By 1990 all that remained was the Frio Town Cemetery on Farm Road 140 and the largely intact remains of the original courthouse and jail on the Roberts Ranch.

Tsha Handbook → · 13.8 mi away

Cotulla Ranch

1863

Polish immigrant Joseph Cotulla (1844-1922) came to America in 1856, traveling with his family by ship and oxcart. He worked on area ranches and registered his own brand, the BAR JF, in 1863. Joseph enlisted in the First Texas Cavalry of the Union Army and served for two years during the Civil War. He drove cattle from the Nueces River to Kansas for several years. He started an area ranch with four other men in 1869 before establishing his own ranch in 1874. Cotulla continued to buy land and amassed more than 30,000 acres in La Salle, Dimmit and Webb counties. He donated 120 acres of the ranch to the railroad in 1881 to develop a townsite, which bears his name and became La Salle county seat. The original ranch land remains in the family today. (2009)

Historical Marker → · 17.1 mi away

Welhausen School

1926

Designed by Austin architect Charles H. Page, this brick schoolhouse was completed in 1926 and named for County Judge G. A. Welhausen (1862-1944). Twenty-year-old Lyndon B. Johnson came to Cotulla in 1928-29 and served as teacher and principal at the school, which served the city's Hispanic students for many years. Built in a classically inspired plan with a central block flanked by two low wings, the building features decorative tile panels. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1990

Historical Marker → · 17.4 mi away

Everything Near Dilley

65 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Dilley, TX

    Dilley is a place where the mesquite trees stubbornly hold their ground against the Texas sun, and where the roar of I-35 is a constant, low hum in the background. It might seem like just another small town you pass…

  • Engineering the Winter Garden

    As you look at the dry-looking brush country around Dilley, it’s hard to picture this area as a lush garden. But for a time, it was. The transformation was a feat of hydrology and engineering. In the early 1900s,…

  • Japanese Macaque · 0.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Japanese macaques, commonly known as snow monkeys, are native to Japan, but a population has lived in South Texas since the 1970s. These primates' thick fur enables them to withstand harsh winters and ranges in color…

  • Dilley, TX · 0.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Dilley, Texas, a town born from a railroad and a river crossing. Originally called Darlington, this spot was chosen by the International-Great Northern Railroad in the early 1880s. It sat near…

  • William A. Waugh · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker

    (1832-1901) An Ohio native who found gold in California in 1849, William A. Waugh settled near the Cibolo Creek Crossing on the Laredo-San Antonio Road in 1856, before La Salle County was created. Waugh served briefly…

  • Frio Town, TX · 13.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Frio Town, originally known as Frio City, was a frontier community off Farm Road 140 immediately south of the Presidio Crossing of the Frio River, sixteen miles northwest of Pearsall in northwest Frio County. The…

  • Camp Lawson · 13.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Frio County, not far from the Frio River Crossing, and right here, in late 1859, stood Camp Lawson. This wasn't your typical fort; it was a temporary military post, established on October 27,…

  • Frio County · 13.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Frio County, an area that has seen some of the earliest European footsteps in Texas. Back in 1685, the French explorer La Salle likely passed through this very region. Then, in 1714, Louis…

  • Bennett, TX (Frio County) · 13.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Bennett, also known as Bennett Settlement and Hamlin, was on the Leona River a half mile west of the intersection of Interstate Highway 35 and the Frio River in southwest Frio County. The settlement was named for one of…

  • Atajal Indians · 13.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Frio County, and right here, in the Frio River valley, you're passing through territory once known by the Atajal Indians. In 1690, explorer Damián Massanet encountered them, noting…

  • Pitahay Indians · 13.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Frio County, and right here, in the valley of the Frio River, lived the Pitahay Indians. Back in the late 1600s and early 1700s, these people shared encampments with at least fifteen…

  • Derby, TX · 13.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Derby is on the Missouri Pacific line at the intersection of Interstate Highway 35 and Farm Road 1583, nine miles southwest of Pearsall in south central Frio County. Englishman John Bennett, an engineer for the…

Show all 65 nearby places
  • Divot, TX · 13.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Divot is at the intersection of Farm roads 1581 and 117, nine miles northwest of Dilley in southwest Frio County. It was originally known as Leona Settlement because of its location near the Leona River. Evidence…

  • Schattel, TX · 13.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Schattel, located west of Farm Road 472 and six miles south of Bigfoot in northeastern Frio County, was established as a farming community for Texas German and Bohemian families by William Schattel in 1924. Schattel, a…

  • The Courthouse That Lost a Floor · 15.3 mi

    The buff-brick building anchoring the square in the center of Pearsall is the Frio County Courthouse, and it doesn't quite look the way it was born. San Antonio architect Henry T. Phelps designed it in the Renaissance…

  • Frio County · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Frio County, named for its 'cold' river. This land was home to the Pachal Indians before Spaniards arrived in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1519</say-as>. Explorers like Alonso de Leon…

  • Frio County Jail, Old · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Old Frio County Jail, the oldest building still standing in Pearsall. Built back in 1884 for eleven thousand dollars, this structure served as both a jail and the jailer's residence for nearly…

  • Presbyterian Pearsall Church · 15.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Presbyterian Church in Pearsall, organized back in 1884. The original building, dedicated in 1885, is still in use today. It's the oldest church building in continuous use in Pearsall and still…

  • The World Peanut Capital · 15.6 mi

    As you come through Pearsall, look for something you won't see anywhere else: a giant peanut. It's about six feet long, held up on metal supports over a concrete base that reads WORLD'S LARGEST PEANUT and, underneath…

  • Unlocking the Eagle Ford Shale · 15.6 mi

    As you drive through Pearsall, you're on top of one of the biggest engineering stories of the 21st century. A mile or so beneath you is the Eagle Ford Shale -- across its four-hundred-mile trend it runs anywhere from…

  • George Strait Tonight, Five Dollars · 15.6 mi

    While George Strait was a student at Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, he and the Ace in the Hole Band worked the honky tonks of South Texas, and one of them was the Wishing Well Club here in Pearsall. A woman who…

  • The Day an F4 Crossed Interstate 35 · 15.6 mi

    On April 15, 1973, one of the most violent tornadoes in South Texas history tore a 23-mile gash across Frio County and passed just three miles south of where you're standing. The funnel touched down about eight miles…

  • The World's Largest Peanut (and the Towns That Argue About It) · 15.6 mi

    Right by 411 South Trevino Street sits Pearsall's proudest brag: the World's Largest Peanut, a six-foot legume held aloft on metal supports above a concrete base. The base says it plainly, WORLD'S LARGEST PEANUT and…

  • Pearsall, TX · 15.6 mi

    Pearsall is a quiet place, no doubt. You can feel it in the air as you drive in, even with Interstate 35 humming nearby. But don’t let that fool you. This little town, set a bit higher than the surrounding plains, has…

  • The 1884 Jail With the Town's Oldest Walls · 15.6 mi

    At 410 East Pecan Street stands the oldest building in Pearsall: the Old Frio County Jail, built in 1884 by the noted jail-builders P.J. Pauly & Bro. and now home to the Frio Pioneer Jail Museum. It's a two-story…

  • The King of Country's Hometown · 15.6 mi

    When you think of the King of Country, you probably picture a big stage in Nashville. But the story runs through Pearsall. George Strait was born up the road in Poteet and raised right here, and he graduated from…

  • Everybody's Eighth Grade Math Teacher · 15.6 mi

    George Strait's father, John Byron Strait, was raised in Pearsall. He served in the Army during World War Two, then came home and taught math in the Pearsall schools for more than thirty years. When George's parents…

  • Married Twice · 15.6 mi

    George Strait and Norma went to high school together here in Pearsall, and he has called her the first girl he ever loved. In December of nineteen seventy one, when he was nineteen and she was seventeen, they ran off to…

  • The Well, the Railroad, and the Man Who Never Lived Here · 15.6 mi

    Before there was a Pearsall, there was a well. In the 1870s, wagon trains running the road from Frio Town to Pleasanton stopped to water at Waggoner's Well, a dependable spring on a big sheep ranch right about where you…

  • From Cotton to Peanuts to Crude · 15.6 mi

    Frio County has reinvented its economy more than once, and Pearsall sat at the center each time. Cotton built the early town, but in the 1930s the county agent, N.H. Hunt, started pushing farmers to swap their cotton…

  • George Hindes, the Trail Driver Who Helped Build the Town · 15.6 mi

    Among the names that shaped early Pearsall, George F. Hindes stands out, and you'll still find it stamped on the map of Frio County. Hindes was an old-time South Texas cattleman and trail driver, one of the cowmen whose…

  • Frio Town's courthouse becomes a store · 15.6 mi

    The Frio County Courthouse in the center of Pearsall stands as a monument to a battle between two towns. Before Pearsall existed, the county seat was Frio Town, a community on the Frio River at the Presidio Crossing,…

  • The Rock Layer That Wears This Town's Name · 15.6 mi

    Drive past the pumpjacks around Pearsall and you're rolling over a piece of geology that literally carries the town's name. The Pearsall Formation, often called the Pearsall Shale, is a Lower Cretaceous rock unit that…

  • The Farm Report Kid · 15.6 mi

    George Strait did not grow up on country radio. His father taught math here in Pearsall, and Strait remembered that on weekends and summers they'd head to the family ranch, listening mostly to the news and the farm…

  • The Frio in All My Ex's · 15.6 mi

    Frio County takes its name from the Frio River, which runs just west of Pearsall, and frio is Spanish for cold. In nineteen eighty seven, George Strait took All My Ex's Live in Texas to number one. It was written by…

  • Cowpokes Bar-B-Q, the Brisket Stop Off I-35 · 15.6 mi

    If you want to eat where Pearsall actually eats, point yourself toward Cowpokes Bar-B-Q at 1855 West Comal Street, an easy hop off Interstate 35. It's the kind of place that gives a small Texas town its flavor: a big…

  • The Math Teacher's Son, by the Numbers · 15.6 mi

    For the son of a Pearsall math teacher, here are some numbers. Billboard credits George Strait with the most number one singles of any artist in any genre, starting with Fool Hearted Memory in nineteen eighty two. On…

  • Rope Every Day · 15.6 mi

    George Strait grew up working his family's ranch, but he says he didn't get bitten by the competitive team roping bug until his early twenties. He tried teaching himself first, and told Team Roping Journal that he…

  • Pearsall, TX · 15.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Pearsall, the county seat of Frio County. This town owes its very existence to a railroad company and a simple well. Back in the 1870s, folks traveling between Frio Town and Pleasanton would stop…

  • Frio Lodge No. 399, A.F. & A.M. · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Frio Lodge No. 399, organized in 1873 in Frio City. It relocated to Pearsall in 1883 and is the oldest continuing organization in Frio County.

  • Where the King of Country Was a Rock-and-Roll Kid · 16.4 mi

    George Strait was born up the road in Poteet, but Pearsall is where he grew up and where the King of Country first got on a stage, and it wasn't playing country. His father, John Strait, taught junior-high math here and…

  • The Pearsall Lineman Who Reached Two Super Bowls · 16.4 mi

    Country music isn't the only thing Pearsall High School sent into the big leagues. Dave Studdard came out of these halls, went on to anchor the offensive line for the Texas Longhorns as an All-Southwest Conference…

  • The Classroom That Created a President · 16.8 mi

    Right here in Cotulla, a future president found his purpose. In 1928, a young, ambitious Lyndon B. Johnson arrived to teach the 5th, 6th, and 7th graders at the Welhausen School, and he was soon made principal over the…

  • Boomtown on the Eagle Ford · 16.8 mi

    As you travel along Interstate 35, look at the hotels, the sprawling yards for energy service companies, and the sheer number of trucks. You're seeing the landscape of a 21st-century oil boom. For a hundred years,…

  • Unlocking the Eagle Ford Shale · 16.8 mi

    The recent boom that transformed Cotulla wasn't just about finding oil; it was about the technology to get it out. The oil and gas here are trapped in the Eagle Ford Shale, a layer of rock two miles deep that's about as…

  • Cotulla, TX · 16.8 mi

    Cotulla sits nestled in the heart of the South Texas Brush Country, a landscape sculpted by ancient seas and the relentless sun. You won't find towering mountains here, but rather a gently rolling terrain, almost…

  • William Ferdinand Evans · 16.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cotulla, the last home of William Ferdinand Evans. Before settling here, Evans served Texas during the Civil War, defending Galveston Island. After the war, he married twice, raised four children,…

  • Cotulla Cemetery · 16.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cotulla Cemetery, the main burial ground for La Salle County. It began with land donated by town founder Joseph Cotulla, and its earliest marked grave dates back to 1882. The year 1886 was…

  • Capt. Jasper N. Daniel · 16.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cotulla, home of Captain Jasper N. Daniel. He came to Texas in 1853, served as a captain in the Confederate army during the Civil War, and later moved here. Daniel helped bring order to this…

  • North Pearsall, TX · 17.0 mi

    The racial makeup of North Pearsall is diverse, with 72.55% White, 1.25% Native American, 24.42% from other races, and 1.78% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race make up 82.00% of the population,…

  • First Baptist Church of Cotulla · 17.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Cotulla's first Baptist Church. Joseph Cotulla donated land for the building in 1882, and the fellowship was organized around 1883 or 1884. The congregation worshiped in a frame building…

  • Cotulla Ranch · 17.1 mi · Historical Marker

    Polish immigrant Joseph Cotulla (1844-1922) came to America in 1856, traveling with his family by ship and oxcart. He worked on area ranches and registered his own brand, the BAR JF, in 1863. Joseph enlisted in the…

  • Cotulla, TX · 17.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Cotulla, the county seat of La Salle County. This town owes its existence to Joseph Cotulla, a Polish immigrant with a vision. In the early 1880s, he learned the railroad was coming and decided to…

  • Van Cleve, Olen Jackson, Jr. [Jack] · 17.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through South Texas, and right here in Cotulla, Jack Van Cleve spent the last twenty years of his law enforcement career as a Texas Ranger. After serving in World War II and working as a deputy sheriff,…

  • First Deep Artesian Well · 17.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cotulla, and right here is the site of a true Texas game-changer. For years, water scarcity plagued this region. But in 1910, Joseph Cotulla struck artesian water over 2,000 feet down on his…

  • Cotulla - The Brush Country Stretch · 17.1 mi · National Historic Trail

    Cotulla sits along the southern branch of El Camino Real de los Tejas, a notorious stretch of brush country between Laredo and San Antonio that travelers feared for its drought, its bandits, and its lack of water.

  • The First United Methodist Church of Cotulla · 17.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Cotulla's first Protestant church. Organized in 1881 as the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, its first services were held in a private home. The congregation later built a chapel shared…

  • Cotulla City Park · 17.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cotulla, and right here is the city park, a place that's been central to community life since the late 1800s. It started as a campsite for travelers and ranchers, then got a bandstand for…

  • La Salle County · 17.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through La Salle County, a place named for the first French explorer of Texas, Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle. This area was a vital stop on the Presidio Rio Grande Road, and later saw the…

  • The Amanda Burks School · 17.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cotulla, where Amanda Burks played a key role in local education. After her husband died, she ran their ranch for over fifty years, believing strongly in schooling. A school built in 1909 was renamed…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Cotulla · 17.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First Presbyterian Church of Cotulla. The congregation was established in 1884 by visiting pastor W. W. Killough. After worshipping in other churches, they built their own in 1891,…

  • Cotulla's First School · 17.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cotulla, and right here is the site of the town's very first school, which opened its doors in 1885. Imagine classes for primary, intermediate, and advanced students, taught by J.M. Gunning and…

  • Welhausen School · 17.4 mi · Historical Marker

    Designed by Austin architect Charles H. Page, this brick schoolhouse was completed in 1926 and named for County Judge G. A. Welhausen (1862-1944). Twenty-year-old Lyndon B. Johnson came to Cotulla in 1928-29 and served…

  • The Nueces River · 18.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past The Nueces River. Until 1836 this river formed the undisputed western boundary of Texas * By the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in February, 1848, the boundary line between Mexico and the United…

  • Frio County · 18.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Frio County, a place explored by the Spanish way back in 1690. It was officially created in 1858, but things really got going in 1871 when Frio City became the first county seat. Later, Pearsall…

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