Pleasanton proudly calls itself the Birthplace of the Cowboy, a claim it stakes on the vaquero and longhorn heritage of the Atascosa River country. After the Civil War the county's herds exploded, from about twenty-nine thousand cattle in 1860 to more than ninety-two thousand by 1870, and Pleasanton became a gathering point for the ranchers and cowhands working them. Locals point to the Western Stock Journal, a newspaper published here starting in 1873, as early proof the town was cowboy headquarters. To honor that heritage, residents began the Cowboy Homecoming festival in 1966, an annual celebration of cook-offs, fiddling, and rodeo held at the river park. Downtown, the Mr. Cowboy statue, a gift of Ben and Mona Parker, stands near City Hall across from a giant oak, keeping the town's self-made title in bronze. It is Pleasanton's own claim, worn with pride.

John T. Lytle Points 3,500 Longhorns North Past Town RoadyGoat

1874

In 1874 South Texas rancher John T. Lytle blazed what became the Great Western Cattle Trail, and it ran right past Pleasanton on the east bank of the Atascosa River. Lytle, born in Pennsylvania in 1844, moved to San Antonio as a young man and worked on an Atascosa County ranch with his uncle. He had a government contract to deliver cattle to the Red Cloud Agency at Camp Robinson, Nebraska. That first drive pushed roughly thirty-five hundred longhorns north out of South Texas. The Western Trail outlasted and outgrew the older Chisholm Trail; an estimated six million head eventually moved over the Western system, more than all the other cattle trails combined. A granite marker commemorating the trail now stands on the Pleasanton City Hall lawn, placed by the local Rotary Club, the city, and the county historical commission, marking the ground those herds crossed.

A River Named for Getting Stuck in the Mud RoadyGoat

1788

The Atascosa River that shaped Pleasanton carries a warning in its name. Atascosa comes from Spanish and means boggy or miry, from the verb atascar, to become stuck or bogged down. Spanish speakers were using the word for this country by 1788, describing the soft, mud-prone banks that could trap a horse or a cart. The river is more than a local creek: it belongs to the Nueces River basin, one of the great watersheds of south Texas. The Atascosa runs about a hundred miles south and southeast and joins the Frio River near Three Rivers, and the Frio in turn feeds the Nueces on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. That plumbing matters. The same low, water-holding ground that bogged travelers also grew the grass that fed the longhorn herds, so the river's boggy nature helped build the very cattle country the town celebrates today.

Capt. Peter F. Tumlinson

1823

Peter Tumlinson was 19 years old when his family moved to Texas in 1821. During an 1823 skirmish with Waco Indians, his father, John Jackson Tumlinson, became the first Texas Ranger to die in the line of duty. Peter followed his father into the Texas Rangers. During his forty years of service, Tumlinson clashed with Indian raiders and the infamous Mexican bandit Juan Cortina. He also fought in the Texas Revolution, and family tradition holds that he was present at Sam Houston’s meeting with Santa Anna following the Battle of San Jacinto. For his service, Tumlinson was granted land in Atascosa County, where he served as county commissioner and founded Pleasanton Masonic Lodge No. 283 A.F. & A.M. and served as charter treasurer.

Historical Marker →

San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad

1909

The San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad had its beginning as a short line railroad and began in 1909 under the original name of the Crystal City and Uvalde (CC&U) Railroad. With the advent of drilling and discovery of deep artesian water wells in the western portion of the brush country, irrigation farming of fruits and vegetables became very profitable which increased the need for better transportation to ship goods to distant markets. Land promoters soon saw the value of the CC&U Railroad, offering “bonuses” to bring the railroad to new areas of the brush country. In 1912, it expanded into North Pleasanton, created by railroad officials to include a round house, railroad shops and a two-story depot. The train from San Antonio made its first trip to Pleasanton on September 16, 1912. By the time the tracks reached Pleasanton, the railroad became the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf railroad (SAU&G), or “The Sausage.” In January 1913, a bridge over the Atascosa River was completed and train service continued to Campbellton and, eventually, to the coast. In the early 1920s, the SAU&G was purchased by the New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railroad for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. In 1982, Missouri Pacific merged into the Union Pacific Railroad. The railroad was a major factor in transforming the hot, dry, brush and prickly pear area into the vast farming and ranching lands of south Texas. The old SAU&G Railroad tracks from San Antonio to Corpus Christi are the last remaining tracks between the two cities. Union Pacific crews still refer to this stretch of tracks as “The Sausage.”

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Pleasanton

1858

(Founded 1858) Named for early Texas settler John Pleasants, by John Bowen (d.1867), San Antonio's first Anglo-American postmaster. Bowen, assisted financially by associate Henry L. Radaz, in Sept. 1858 founded this town at the juncture of Atascosa River and Bonita Creek as the county seat of Atascosa County. The first courthouse in Pleasanton (second in county) stood on this site. Men from this and surrounding counties met here in Civil War (1862) to form Co. E, 32nd Texas Volunteer Cavalry, Confederate Army, under Captain Lewis Maverick. In an area thick with Longhorns since Spanish and Indian days, Pleasanton became a cattlemen's capital. Beginning in 1860s, the Stock Raisers' Association of Western Texas often convened here. This was place of publication of "Western Stock Journal," founded 1873. Here gathered the hardiest and most skillful cowboys, including those driving herds from Mexican border to shipping points in Kansas. In spring of 1873 they drove 43,000 Atascosa county cattle up the trail. Pleasanton was county seat until 1911, and still grows. In 1961 it absorbed North Pleasanton (founded 1912 as site for San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad shops). County's largest town, it is famous for liveoak trees, and commerce in beef, peanuts, and petroleum. (1973)

Historical Marker →

Pleasanton, TX

1858

Pleasanton is at the intersections of Farm Roads 476, 5350, 1334 and U.S. Highway 281, five miles northeast of Jourdanton in northeast Atascosa County. It was founded in 1858, when conflicts with Indians caused the settlers to move the location of the county seat from Amphion. The mouth of Bonita Creek seemed the perfect location for the new seat, so the county residents voted this area as the official townsite. John Bowen, who later named the town after early settler John Pleasant, donated five square miles of land for development. E. B. Thomas, the first settler, opened the first general store in Pleasanton. In 1860 Pleasanton became county school district number 1, with W. J. Pepham as the first teacher. By 1861 the town had a dozen families, two blacksmiths, and three lawyers. A log cabin served as the courthouse for nine years. After the new courthouse was built by William Guynes, the log cabin was rented to the school district until 1875, when a rock schoolhouse was built. The old courthouse also served as a church at one time. By the early twentieth century Pleasanton, had two newspapers, the Pleasanton Picayune , which became the Pleasanton Express in 1909, and the Pleasanton Reporter . Although Jourdanton became the county seat in 1910, Pleasanton continued to grow. In 1912 the Missouri Pacific Railroad linked the town to San Antonio, and in 1914 Pleasanton became connected by railroad to Corpus Christi. At this time the population was 1,500. In 1917 the town was officially incorporated. Pleasanton profited from the thriving cattle industry of the area and became a gathering place for cowboys driving cattle to Kansas. The Stock Raisers Association of Western Texas often held meetings or conventions in the town. By the 1940s the population reached 2,074; it had increased by another 1,000 by the 1960s. In 1966 the "Cowboy Homecoming" was begun in Pleasanton. Since many locals claimed the town was the birthplace of the cowboy, they decided to commemorate the tradition officially. The festival, which occurs annually in August, has cook-offs, fiddler contests, and carnivals in tribute to the cattle industry. Other important industries of the area are peanuts and petroleum. The population of Pleasanton was 6,091 in 1980 and 8,042 in 1994. In 1989 the town adopted a manager-council government. Pleasanton has four state historical markers: the Cooper Chapter 101 of the Masons was recognized in 1971, the town was honored with a marker on the city hall grounds in 1973, and in 1984 the First United Methodist Church and the old site of the San Augustine Church received plaques. The population was 8,266 in 2000.

Tsha Handbook →

Medina, Battle of

1813

The battle of Medina was fought on August 18, 1813, between the republican forces of the Gutiérrez-Magee expedition under Gen. José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois and a Spanish royalist army under Gen. Joaquín de Arredondo . This bloodiest battle ever fought on Texas soil took place twenty miles south of San Antonio in a sandy oak forest region then called el encinal de Medina . Occurring during a very confused and turbulent period of world history, the battle of Medina affected the destinies of Spain, Mexico, the United States, England, and France. Mexico and Latin America were in revolt against Spain, whose king was Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, who was on a rampage in Europe, and the United States was at war with England, later to be called the War of 1812. In this cauldron of world events, José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara and Augustus William Magee , abetted by the United States, organized an expedition to wrest Texas from Spain. Adopting a "Green Flag" for a banner, their Republican Army of the North crossed from the Neutral Ground in Louisiana into Texas on August 7, 1812, and soon captured Nacogdoches, Trinidad de Salcedo, La Bahía , where Magee died, and San Antonio, where a declaration of independence for the State of Texas under the Republic of Mexico was proclaimed on April 6, 1813. This, however, was short-lived, for Joaquín de Arredondo, commandant-general of the Provincias Internas , organized an army of 1,830 men and marched them early in August from Laredo toward San Antonio to quell the rebellion. In the meantime, Toledo deposed Gutiérrez and became the new commander of the republicans on August 4. With a force of about 1,400 men composed of Anglos, Tejanos , Indians, and former royalists, Toledo, urged by Tejanos who wanted to spare San Antonio from the ravages of battle, chose to meet the enemy south of the city. The night of August 17 he encamped his forces about six miles from Arredondo's camp between the Atascosa and Medina rivers and planned to ambush the royalists as they traveled through a defile along the Laredo road. The next morning, however, royalist scouts flushed the republicans and lured them into an ambush in a dense oak forest. Acting against Toledo's orders, the republicans, led by Miguel Menchaca , trudged through deep sand for several hours in pursuit of a cavalry unit, which they mistook for an army. In the meantime, Arredondo prepared breastworks on favorable ground and ordered his men not to fire on the rebels until they were within forty paces. By the time the republicans came within range, they were very hot, thirsty, and tired. After a furious four-hour battle involving infantry, cavalry, and artillery, the republicans broke ranks and ran. Most of those not killed on the battlefield were caught and executed during the retreat. The republicans were decimated. Less than 100 were able to escape alive. Of these, no more than twenty have thus far been identified. Arredondo lost only fifty-five men, who were given honorable burial the next day on the way to San Antonio, where he established martial law and severely punished the rebels and their families. One of Arredondo's more notable subalterns was Lt. Antonio López de Santa Anna , who learned the lessons of war well and returned to Texas with another army twenty-three years later. After the battle of Medina, Arredondo ordered his men to imprison women, primarily widows and daughters of men who Arredondo suspected to be rebels, in la Quinta , where the women were held and mistreated for months. The bodies of the republican warriors lost in battle were left to lie nine years on the battlefield until 1822 when José Félix Trespalacios , the first governor of the state of Texas under the newly established Republic of Mexico, ordered a detachment of soldiers to gather their bones and bury them honorably under an oak tree that grew on the battlefield. A Texas counterpart to the Mexican War of Independence , the Gutiérrez-Magee expedi

Tsha Handbook → · 6.3 mi away

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund

1966

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has represented Mexican Americans in civil-rights lawsuits since it was incorporated in Texas in 1967. The pivotal moment in its founding occurred in a Jourdanton, Texas, courtroom in June 1966. Attorney Pete Tijerina, representing a Mexican American female client in a lawsuit against an Anglo, faced an initial jury pool with no Mexican Americans. A second jury pool on August 1, 1966, yielded only two Spanish-surnamed jurors, one who was deceased and another who did not speak English. Tijerina won his case; however, he obtained only a portion of the money he believed was fair for his client, who had suffered an amputated leg in a car accident caused by the Anglo defendant. Tijerina believed the jury selection process determined the low monetary outcome of the case. After this experience, he set out with fellow Mexican-American attorneys and Jack Greenberg of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to organize a legal entity through which Mexican Americans would challenge discrimination in the courts, education, employment, and immigration. Tijerina both cofounded and served as the fund's first executive director, and Mario Obledo , a former state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens , was its first general counsel. Its first national office was in San Antonio. A board of directors was established to oversee the organization. In 1968 Tijerina, with the assistance of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the NAACP, obtained a $2,250,000 five-year grant from the Ford Foundation to implement "litigation and general education activities." MALDEF's areas of interest included litigation in education, employment, and police-brutality cases. The fund also conducted research and published documents on the legal rights of Mexican Americans and disseminated a newsletter, MALDEF . The Ford grant provided scholarship money to educate more Mexican-American lawyers. At first non-Hispanic lawyers made up a sizable portion of MALDEF staff and cooperating attorneys. In its first three years, MALDEF floundered in its attempts to file constitutionally significant lawsuits and was inundated with routine legal-aid cases that could be resolved outside the courts. In addition to its difficulty in gaining traction, some of its San Antonio staff were deemed "militant," a perception that caused the Ford Foundation to recommend moving the headquarters out of the state and replacing Tijerina as executive director. MALDEF chose San Francisco, California, as its new headquarters and selected Mario Obledo as executive director and general counsel. The national office was subsequently moved to Los Angeles, California, and continued to maintain a regional branch in San Antonio. Later, it added regional branches in Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Under Obledo's direction, MALDEF began to work on employment discrimination cases with the NAACP legal office. He improved the national standing of the organization by involving it in Supreme Court cases through friend-of-the-court briefs, sometimes filed in conjunction with other organizations. In 1973, when the case of Demetrio Rodríguez et al. v. San Antonio Independent School District was tried before the United States Supreme Court, civil-rights proponents suffered a major defeat when the court ruled against equal financing of education. Though not a MALDEF case, the decision had significant bearing on MALDEF's legal strategies. That same year MALDEF achieved its first successful litigation before the Supreme Court in the case of White, et al. v. Regester, et al. , which resulted in the implementation of single-member districts and served as a precedent for Texas county, city council, and school board districts. This litigation was instrumental in eventually bringing Texas into compliance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which required the federal approval o

Tsha Handbook → · 5.3 mi away

Things to Do in Pleasanton

historical 22.8 mi away

The Alamo Messenger Who Founded a Town

Dr. John Sutherland was inside the Alamo on February 23 1836 when Santa Anna arrived. He and John Smith were the first to spot the Mexican army but Sutherlands…

spooky 21.4 mi away

Donkey Lady Bridge

A disfigured woman with melted fingers resembling hooves is said to haunt this bridge over Elm Creek south of San Antonio. Visitors report screaming and…

Everything Near Pleasanton

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

The Town That Calls Itself the Birthplace of the Cowboy
Pleasanton proudly calls itself the Birthplace of the Cowboy, a claim it stakes on the vaquero and longhorn heritage of the Atascosa River country. After the Civil War the county's herds exploded, from about twenty-nine…
John T. Lytle Points 3,500 Longhorns North Past Town
In 1874 South Texas rancher John T. Lytle blazed what became the Great Western Cattle Trail, and it ran right past Pleasanton on the east bank of the Atascosa River. Lytle, born in Pennsylvania in 1844, moved to San…
A River Named for Getting Stuck in the Mud
The Atascosa River that shaped Pleasanton carries a warning in its name. Atascosa comes from Spanish and means boggy or miry, from the verb atascar, to become stuck or bogged down. Spanish speakers were using the word…
Pleasanton, TX
Pleasanton, Texas, that's a town synonymous with one thing: peanuts. You see the sandy soil here, that's what makes it perfect. It's not just that you *can* grow peanuts, it's that they thrive. This whole area, Atascosa…
John Bowen Lays Out a Town Between Two Waters
Pleasanton was laid out in 1858 by John Bowen, remembered as San Antonio's first Anglo-American postmaster, who donated roughly five square miles for the townsite. He named the place for his friend and fellow early…
Second Baptist Church of Pleasanton · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Second Baptist Church in Pleasanton. Organized in 1891 as Saint James Baptist Church by Reverend James Ellis, it served the African American community. The congregation faced challenges,…
North Pleasanton · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through what used to be North Pleasanton, a town born from the railroad in 1912. It was the division point for the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf line, complete with offices and machine shops. At its peak,…
Capt. Peter F. Tumlinson · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
Peter Tumlinson was 19 years old when his family moved to Texas in 1821. During an 1823 skirmish with Waco Indians, his father, John Jackson Tumlinson, became the first Texas Ranger to die in the line of duty. Peter…
San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
The San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad had its beginning as a short line railroad and began in 1909 under the original name of the Crystal City and Uvalde (CC&U) Railroad. With the advent of drilling and discovery of…
Pleasanton First United Methodist Church · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Pleasanton, and right here, you're passing the site of the city's first United Methodist Church. This congregation actually got its start way back in 1857, a full year before Pleasanton itself was…
Pleasanton Church of Christ · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Pleasanton, where a Church of Christ congregation has been active since at least 1858. Around 1910, local women began holding services in their homes. By 1924, a small frame church building was…
Cooper Chapter No. 101 Royal Arch Masons · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Pleasanton, the site of Cooper Chapter No. 101, Royal Arch Masons. Chartered in 1871, the group met in various locations, including the Isaac Cooper home and over a general store, before their own…

Show all 151 nearby places

Old Rock Schoolhouse · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Old Rock Schoolhouse, built way back in 1874. This place wasn't just for learning; it was a community hub. Constructed from local red sandstone, it was deeded to the county for free…
Pleasanton · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
(Founded 1858) Named for early Texas settler John Pleasants, by John Bowen (d.1867), San Antonio's first Anglo-American postmaster. Bowen, assisted financially by associate Henry L. Radaz, in Sept. 1858 founded this…
George Washington Marion Duck · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site where George Washington Marion Duck, a Kentucky transplant, settled in the 1850s. He quickly became a key figure in Atascosa County, serving as tax assessor and then sheriff for many years.…
First Baptist Church of Pleasanton · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Pleasanton, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church. It all started on December 16, 1866, when seven members gathered to form the congregation. For years, they bounced around,…
Pleasanton City Cemetery · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Pleasanton, and just ahead is the City Cemetery, a place that's been telling the story of this community since 1865. It started as a simple family burial ground when Gustave B. Doak, just three years…
First Presbyterian Church of Pleasanton · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Pleasanton, where the First Presbyterian Church was established on March 29, 1914. Reverend N.H. Doggett organized the congregation, the first Presbyterian church in Atascosa County. They built their…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Pleasanton (Pleasanton) · 1.0 mi
Pleasanton (Pleasanton, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Braysen Stevens (3 HR); Elijah Haren (2 HR).
The Cattle County That Sits on a Uranium Belt · 1.0 mi
Under the ranchland around Pleasanton lies a very different resource: uranium. Atascosa County sits inside the South Texas Uranium Belt, a band of deposits arcing across the coastal plain. Beginning in the 1950s,…
Dr. Ben and Mona Parker and KBOP Radio · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Pleasanton, and right around here, you might have heard the sounds of KBOP Radio. After World War II, the airwaves opened up, and in 1949, local rancher, preacher, and chiropractor Dr. Ben…
Pleasanton, TX · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Pleasanton is at the intersections of Farm Roads 476, 5350, 1334 and U.S. Highway 281, five miles northeast of Jourdanton in northeast Atascosa County. It was founded in 1858, when conflicts with Indians caused the…
The Engineering That Unlocked the Earth · 1.8 mi
The recent boom that transformed Pleasanton was made possible by an incredible feat of engineering happening thousands of feet beneath your feet. The oil and gas here are trapped in a tight layer of rock called the…
Birthplace of the Cowboy · 1.8 mi
You've probably heard of cowboys in places like Dodge City or on the Chisholm Trail. But Pleasanton's town motto makes a bold claim: 'Birthplace of the Cowboy.' Is it true? The history backs it up. Long before the…
Verdi · 2.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Verdi, a community that started as Lucas Community around 1855. Settlers from all over the South, and some of Spanish origin, called this place home. They built churches, schools, and a…
Trooper Terry Wayne Miller Memorial Highway · 2.7 mi · Historical Marker
Interstate Thirty Seven in Atascosa County, from mile marker one oh two to one fifteen, skirting the east side of Pleasanton, is named for Trooper Terry Wayne Miller, who was stationed in Pleasanton. One night in…
Trooper Terry Wayne Miller Memorial Highway · 3.4 mi · Historical Marker
Honors TX DPS Trooper Terry Wayne Miller, killed 1999 in a sniper ambush on I-37 in Atascosa County while responding to assist two deputies who had already been shot.
Coughran · 4.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Coughran, a town that sprang up thanks to a railroad deal. W.A. Coughran bought this land in 1901 and convinced the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad to lay tracks right through it.…
Jourdanton · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Jourdanton, a town that owes its existence to a couple of ambitious ranchers and a railroad. Back in 1909, Jourdan Campbell and Theodore Zanderson established this community on Campbell's Toby Ranch.…
Ralph Roy Smith · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Jourdanton, home of R. R. "Railroad" Smith. Born in 1880, Smith came to Atascosa County around 1907, opening a law practice and diving into the newspaper business. He was elected to the Texas House…
Jourdan Campbell · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Jourdanton, a town named after the man who essentially built it: Jourdan Campbell. Campbell and his family arrived in Atascosa County around 1870. His father founded Campbellton, but Jourdan had…
Mercy Hospital · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Jourdanton, a town that faced a critical moment in 1952, the bloodiest year in Atascosa County history, with thirteen fatalities from accidents. This tragedy spurred a massive community effort to…
Site of San Augustine Church · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Atascosa County, where a remarkable family history unfolded. The Esparza brothers—Manuel, Enrique, and Francisco—arrived here between 1850 and 1860. But their story goes back further, to the very…
Jourdanton City Cemetery · 5.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Jourdanton, a town that sprung up fast thanks to the railroad. Back in 1907, T. H. Zanderson and Jourdan Campbell bought up a huge ranch and laid out this town, even setting aside land for a…
The Only One of Its Kind in Texas · 5.2 mi
Of the roughly 250 Texas county courthouses, exactly one survives in the Mission Revival style, and it stands here. San Antonio architect Henry T. Phelps designed it, and the Gordon Jones Construction Company of San…
The Town Built for a Railroad Stop · 5.2 mi
Jourdanton did not grow up around a crossroads. It was drawn on a blueprint. In 1907 rancher Jourdan Campbell and Colonel T.H. Zanderson bought the 33,760-acre Tobey Ranch, and in September 1909 they platted a town on…
Why They Called It the Artesian Belt · 5.2 mi
The railroad that created Jourdanton was named the Artesian Belt for a reason buried underground. Beneath Atascosa County lies the Carrizo Sand, a thick layer of water-bearing sand sealed above and below by clay. Where…
Atascosa County Jail · 5.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the old Atascosa County Jail in Jourdanton. When the county seat moved here in 1910, officials first rented a house for a jail. But by 1915, they were ready for a proper,…
Atascosa County · 5.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Atascosa County, a place named for the boggy ground that made travel so difficult for early explorers. In fact, as far back as 1722, El Camino Real, the King's Highway from the Rio Grande to San…
Atascosa County Courthouse · 5.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Jourdanton, and right here is the Atascosa County Courthouse. It's seen a few homes over the years! The county was formed in 1856, and its first courthouse was just a log cabin. Later, they tried…
St. Matthew Catholic Parish · 5.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of St. Matthew Catholic Parish in Jourdanton. The original mission-style brick building was dedicated in 1912. A Catholic school opened here in 1937 but closed just three years later.
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund · 5.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has represented Mexican Americans in civil-rights lawsuits since it was incorporated in Texas in 1967. The pivotal moment in its founding occurred in a Jourdanton,…
Jourdanton, TX · 5.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Jourdanton, a town that sprang up from a blueprint. In September of 1909, Jourdan Campbell and Colonel T.H. Zanderson founded this community, designed specifically as a stop on the Artesian Belt…
Donated by a Declaration signer · 5.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the first Atascosa County Courthouse, right here in Jourdanton. It wasn't always this fancy building you might see today. In 1856, the county's first courthouse was a humble log cabin,…
Atascosa County Courthouse · 5.3 mi · Historical Marker
This log cabin is a replica of first courthouse built 1856 near Amphion (Navatasco) 9 miles to the orthwest, on site given by Jose Antonio Navarro out of his 1828 grant from Coahuila and Texas. A signer of the Texas…
Martin Abstract Company · 5.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Jourdanton, where the ranching industry began to shift in the early 1900s. In 1909, George M. Martin founded the Martin Abstract Company to handle the growing real estate transactions. After a few…
Jourdanton United Methodist Church · 5.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Jourdanton, where the United Methodist Church formally organized in 1909, the same year the city was founded. Services started in a tent, with the first building constructed in 1910. The…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Jourdanton (Jourdanton) · 5.4 mi
Jourdanton (Jourdanton, TX) placed on the 3A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Cameron Perez (2 HR); Chris Montez (2 HR).
First Baptist Church of Jourdanton · 5.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Jourdanton. Seven residents organized this Baptist church in October 1909, just a month after Jourdanton was founded. They first met in the community…
Jourdanton I.S.D · 5.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Jourdanton Independent School District, the first in Atascosa County. Authorized by the state legislature in 1911, it started with a bond for a new school and park system. Over the…
Unlocking the Eagle Ford Shale · 5.9 mi
As you drive around Jourdanton, much of the recent development you see is thanks to a breakthrough in science and engineering that happened deep underground. For decades, geologists knew that a rock layer called the…
The Railroad Built to Sell a Town · 5.9 mi
A railroad is usually built to serve a town that already exists. Around Jourdanton it worked the other way. The Artesian Belt Railroad was chartered in November of 1908 to open up the land holdings of a promoter named…
Medina, Battle of · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
The battle of Medina was fought on August 18, 1813, between the republican forces of the Gutiérrez-Magee expedition under Gen. José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois and a Spanish royalist army under Gen. Joaquín de…
Esparza, Enrique · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Atascosa County, near Losoya, and right here is the resting place of Enrique Esparza. He was just a boy, maybe ten years old, when he witnessed the fall of the Alamo. His father died defending it,…
Rancho del Atascoso · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Atascosa County, not far from Pleasanton and Poteet, on land that was once Rancho del Atascoso. In 1768, Fray Gaspár José de Solís visited this sprawling ranch, finding 1,500 head of cattle, 5,000…
Ditto, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Ditto is on the Atascosa River five miles northwest of Poteet in northern Atascosa County. Before it got a post office the community went by the name of Agua Negra, which referred to the dark water that came out of a…
Cantú, Maria Margarita Contreras · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Maria Margarita Contreras Cantú, desegregation activist and community leader, was born on March 30, 1914, to Pablo Herrera Contreras and Martha (Romo) Contreras in Campbellton, Atascosa County, Texas. She married Manuel…
Atascosa County · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Atascosa County, a place named 'boggy' by the Spanish way back in 1788. For thousands of years, Native Americans lived here, but Spanish explorers arrived in the 1500s, followed by Mexican…
Espey, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Espey is a small rural community located on U.S. Highway 281 about ten miles north of Pleasanton in northern Atascosa County. The settlement received its name from the Espey family who came to the area in the early…
Fashing, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Fashing is at the junction of Farm roads 2924 and 99, twenty-nine miles southeast of Jourdanton in southeastern Atascosa County. In 1916 the 5,500-acre Hickok Ranch was subdivided into farms. The surrounding area had…
Old Rock Church, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Old Rock Church, also known as Old Rock Baptist Church, is east of Farm Road 476 and seven miles southeast of Lytle in far northwestern Atascosa County. The congregation that built it came to the site from Medina…
Rossville, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Rossville is on Farm Road 476 eight miles west of Poteet in Atascosa County. Col. José Antonio Navarro , once owner of the area, partitioned his land and bequeathed the tract on both sides of the Atascosa River that…
Metate Creek · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Atascosa County, and right here, a creek bears a name with a story. Metate Creek, and its eastern branch, are named for the Spanish word for a grinding stone. Likely, these stones, or a place…
San Augustine, TX (Atascosa County) · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Atascosa County, and you might be passing near the site of San Augustine. This community was founded in 1869, when Catholic nuns arrived to teach in an adobe schoolhouse built by local residents.…
Amphion, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Amphion is nine miles northwest of Pleasanton in west central Atascosa County, just east of Ranch Road 2146. The majority of settlers came to the site in the late 1880s. Some have claimed that Amphion was the first…
Campbellton, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Campbellton is on U.S. Highway 281A, Farm Road 1099, and the Atascosa River twelve miles east of Christine in southeast Atascosa County. It is named for John F. Campbell, who came to Texas in 1855 from Ireland to…
Coughran, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Coughran was four miles southeast of Pleasanton near the termination of Farm Road 1334 and the Missouri Pacific line in east central Atascosa County. The settlement was named for W. A. "Abe" Coughran, who in 1912 began…
Dobrowolski, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Dobrowolski was on State Highway 97 six miles southwest of Jourdanton in west central Atascosa County. The settlement, originally called Tobey (Toby), had a post office from 1894 until 1919 and was still indicated on…
Hindes, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Hindes is just east of State Highway 95 four miles from the Frio county line in southwest Atascosa County. It was named for George F. Hindes, a local rancher who settled there in 1856 and donated land for the San…
La Parita, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
La Parita is just east of Farm Road 1332 and seven miles southeast of Charlotte in west central Atascosa County. It is named for the La Parita School, which was established in that area in 1875 and was then abandoned in…
Verdi, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Verdi is a farming community just west of Farm Road 1784 and eight miles northeast of Pleasanton in northeastern Atascosa County. The Lucas School, the first school in Atascosa County, opened in 1860 at Lucas Creek,…
The Highway Name That Took Seventy Years to Make Legal · 6.4 mi
Every mile of U S Highway Two Eighty One inside Texas is the American Legion Memorial Highway, and the name is much older than the law behind it. On April thirtieth, nineteen thirty five, the Texas Highway Commission…
Brite Cemetery · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Brite Cemetery in Leming, a final resting place for some of Texas's earliest settlers and soldiers. The earliest marked grave here is for an infant son, Dan, who died in 1854. But the cemetery was…
Thomas Ransdell Brite · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Atascosa County, passing the site of Thomas Ransdell Brite's final home. Born in Missouri in 1824, Brite came to Texas as a teen and quickly volunteered for service in the Mexican invasions of the…
Robert E. Neill · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Atascosa County, past the site of Robert E. Neill's final home. Born in Tennessee in 1827, Neill came to Texas as a child. A childhood injury crippled his left arm, but he still went on to serve…
Benedictine Sisters · 7.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through South Texas, perhaps near San Antonio, and you might be passing by a place that owes its start to a group of determined women. In 1919, eight Benedictine Sisters arrived in Leming, a small town in…
Leming, TX · 7.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Leming, Texas, a town that owes its very name to a railroad man. Back in 1880, this place was known as Las Gallinas. But when P.B. Leming arrived around 1900 to oversee the San Antonio, Uvalde and…
Hooge Hill · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the area known as Hooge Hill, a place that was once a bustling hub for produce and community. In 1917, Anna Ripps and Petrus Hooge established their homestead and a grocery store here. They were…
Shiloh Cemetery · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Shiloh Cemetery near Leming. The first burial here was in 1857, a fourteen-year-old named John Uzell. The land belonged to his relative, Isaac Cavender, who allowed other burials, and the…
Poteet, TX · 7.4 mi
A notable landmark in Poteet is the mosaic of Poteet Canyon, which stands in front of the town's fire station. This artwork is named after the town and is inspired by the long-running comic strip by Milton Caniff,…
Poteet, TX · 7.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Poteet, a town that owes its existence to a lucky find. Back in 1904, Henry Mumme, who'd taken over as postmaster, discovered artesian wells right here. This discovery, prompted by a drought that…
A 1,600-Pound Strawberry and a Berry on a Water Tower · 7.5 mi
There's no missing what Poteet is proud of. Out front of the fire department sits a seven-foot-tall, 1,600-pound concrete strawberry mounted on a pedestal, its base reading Poteet, Strawberry Capital of Texas, a gift to…
The Comic-Strip Girl Named After the Town · 7.5 mi
In the 1950s this tiny strawberry town got an unlikely shot of nationwide fame from the funny pages. Cartoonist Milton Caniff, creator of the wildly popular Steve Canyon comic strip, named a character after Poteet: a…
Long, Hubert · 7.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through South Texas, maybe near Poteet, and right here is the birthplace of Hubert Long, a man who helped shape country music as we know it. Long started in the record business and went on to manage…
Where the King of Country Was Born · 7.6 mi
Country music's reigning King got his start in this strawberry town. George Harvey Strait was born in Poteet on May 18, 1952, the son of John and Doris Strait, before the family settled in nearby Pearsall, where his…
How a Cotton Town Became the Strawberry Capital · 7.6 mi
Poteet wasn't always berry country. For decades cotton ruled these fields, and the town stayed small until the railroad and the water changed everything. Storekeeper Henry Mumme discovered artesian wells here around…
The Godfather of Tejano Started Here · 7.6 mi
Poteet's musical roots run deeper than its one famous son. David Lee Garza, the accordionist and bandleader often called the Godfather of Tejano, was born here on February 15, 1957. He picked up the accordion at age…
The Blacksmith Whose Mail Run Named the Town · 7.6 mi
The town you're rolling into carries the name of the man who handled its mail before it was even a town. Francis Marion Poteet, born in 1833, brought his family to this corner of Atascosa County after leaving the…
Atascosa County, TX · 7.6 mi
Atascosa County is characterized by rolling hills and knolls, which slope to the southeast. The Atascosa River plays a crucial role in draining the county, exiting at its southeastern corner. The highest point in the…
Why Strawberries Love Poteet's Sandy Ground · 7.6 mi
Poteet's whole identity rests on a quirk of dirt and timing. The fields here are wrapped in fine sandy loam, a soil that's medium to slightly acidic, which happens to be exactly what strawberry roots crave. Just as…
Poteet · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Poteet, Texas, a town that owes its name and its fame to a farmer and a strawberry. It all started in the 1880s when Francis Marion Poteet opened a store and began offering mail service. Later, a…
Strawberry Wine Made From the Town's Own Berries · 7.6 mi
If you want to actually taste what Poteet grows, point the car toward 400 Tank Hollow Road, where Poteet Country Winery turns the local harvest into bottles. Their signature pour is exactly what you'd hope for in the…
First Baptist Church of Poteet · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Poteet. Settlers gathered in homes for worship before 1856, then met at Shiloh on Borrego Creek. The church officially organized in June 1856 with ten members.
The Festival Born to Bring the Veterans Back to Farming · 8.6 mi
The party that put Poteet on the map started with a practical worry. After World War II, the Poteet Rotary Club fretted that returning veterans wouldn't go back to the strawberry fields, so in April 1948 they threw a…
Poteet's Strawberry Festival Grounds · 8.6 mi
These hundred and six acres just north of town are the Poteet Strawberry Festival grounds, home to one of South Texas's biggest parties. The festival started in 1948, when the Poteet Rotary Club threw a small strawberry…
Where the Poteets Are Buried · 9.3 mi
A few miles outside town at Rutledge Cemetery lies the family that gave this place its name. Francis Marion Poteet, the blacksmith-postmaster who started it all, died in 1907 and rests here, and the State of Texas…
Amphion and Amphion Cemetery · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the ghost of Amphion, a town that once buzzed with life right here. It all started around 1857, when the first Atascosa County courthouse was built nearby, making this the county seat of…
Battle of Medina · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker
The bloodiest battle ever fought on Texas soil is one almost nobody has heard of, and historians still aren't sure exactly where it happened. In August of 1813, twenty-three years before the Alamo, a republican army of…
St. Joseph's Catholic Church · 10.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Leming, a community that started forming along Gallinas Creek in the 1850s. In 1876, eight families, many of them Polish immigrants, established St. Joseph's Catholic Church, one of the earliest…
Battle of Medina · 10.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Battle of Medina, Texas' bloodiest military engagement. It happened way back in August of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1813</say-as>. A Republican Army of about 1,400 men, a…
Christine, TX · 12.4 mi
In 1910, the town of New Artesia was on the brink of incorporation, but a naming conflict with another town in West Texas led to a change. The town's men, unable to decide on a new name, entrusted the task to their…
The Story of 'The Sausage' Railroad · 12.4 mi
The lifeline that created Christine is gone now, but you can still trace it. And it wasn't the old 'Sausage' — that nickname belonged to the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf, over west through Charlotte. Christine's…
Simmons, Charles Franklin · 12.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
Charles Franklin Simmons, rancher and land promoter, was born Calvin Franklin Simmons in Iuka, Mississippi, on September 27, 1853, one of three sons of Dr. M. A. Simmons, inventor of Dr. M. A. Simmons's Vegetable Liver…
Fairview Methodist Church · 12.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Fairview, Texas, where this Methodist church has seen its share of storms, both literal and figurative. Organized before 1876, services were held in a schoolhouse until a building site was donated.…
Christine, TX · 12.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving south of Jourdanton on Farm Road 140, and you're passing through Christine. This town owes its existence to a developer named C. F. Simmons, who founded it in October 1909. He named it after his daughter,…
The Festival That Built a Town · 12.7 mi
In Poteet, everything revolves around one weekend in April. That’s when the Poteet Strawberry Festival takes over. But this is more than just a party; it’s a piece of living history. It all started in 1948. The town's…
The Science of a Poteet Strawberry · 12.7 mi
The reason Poteet is the 'Strawberry Capital of Texas' isn't luck; it's a perfect combination of soil science, hydrology, and horticulture. As you look at the fields, notice the ground. It’s not dark clay; it’s a…
The 'Dilly-Dally' Railroad · 12.7 mi
Poteet owes a lot to a shoestring railroad. The Artesian Belt was chartered in November of 1908 and opened the following September, running down from Macdona toward Christine through the country made famous by its…
Navarro, Jose Antonio · 13.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past land once granted to Mission San Jose, but left unsettled until the 1820s. In 1828, Jose Antonio Navarro, a key figure in San Antonio and a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, asked the…
Fairview · 13.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through what used to be Fairview, a community that sprang up right after the Civil War. Henry Hudson opened a store here in the late 1860s, and soon a post office followed. Fairview grew into a bustling…
Rossville · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Atascosa County, passing the site of what was once Rossville. This was the very first Scottish community in all of southwest Texas. It all started in 1873 when brothers William and John Ross, who…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Charlotte (Charlotte) · 15.4 mi
Charlotte (Charlotte, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Josh Gaitan (0.531 avg, 8 HR).
Charlotte, TX · 15.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Charlotte, Texas, a town literally built like a wagon wheel. Back in 1910, J.F. Edwards laid out the townsite with streets radiating from a central hub, just like the spokes of a wheel. This…
Engineering the Eagle Ford Boom · 15.5 mi
The recent boom that transformed Charlotte wasn't just about finding oil; it was about incredible engineering. For decades, geologists knew a layer of rock called the Eagle Ford Shale, located two miles down, was rich…
Highway One Seventy Three and Westmoreland's Fire Brigade · 15.5 mi
State Highway One Seventy Three, from near Kerrville down to near Jourdanton, is the One Seventy Third Airborne Brigade Memorial Highway. The highway and the brigade share a number. Texas lawmakers passed the…
The 'Sausage' Railroad · 15.5 mi
The railroad that gave birth to Charlotte had a funny nickname: the 'Sausage.' Its official name was the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad, and locals quickly turned the initials—S.A.U. & G.—into a nickname that…
The First Oil Boom · 15.5 mi
Long before the recent shale boom, Charlotte had its first wild ride with oil. In the 1930s and ‘40s, wildcatters discovered major oil fields nearby, including the Imogene field. Suddenly, the quiet agricultural town…
Charlotte, TX · 15.6 mi
Charlotte, Texas, has a significant place in the history of civil rights in the state. In 1928, a pivotal moment occurred when Felipe Vela filed the first official legal complaint against racial segregation for Mexicans…
Anchorage Cemetery · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the historic Anchorage Cemetery, a place named by a former sea captain! In 1882, William and Mary Allen Stiggins, along with their daughter Mary Jane and her fiancé Thomas Whittet, arrived here from…
Rossville Cemetery · 15.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Rossville Cemetery, a resting place established by a land grant from a famous Texan. Jose Antonio Navarro, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, transferred land here to his son. In…
Edward Brown · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Atascosa County, passing the site of a man who saw major Texas history unfold. Edward Brown fought in the Texas Revolution and later in the U.S.-Mexico War. He was even captured by Mexican forces…
How the Purple Heart Trail Grew Across Texas · 17.6 mi
This highway is part of the Purple Heart Trail, a symbolic trail that runs through all fifty states to honor those killed or wounded in combat while serving in the armed forces. In Texas it started with one road. In two…
The Jar of Black Beans · 17.8 mi
The Bigfoot, Texas, sign carries this man's name, so here's the chapter that turned Wallace into a legend. In eighteen forty-two he joined the Mier Expedition, a ragtag Texan raid across the Rio Grande that ended in…
Now, About the Other Bigfoot · 17.8 mi
You're passing through Bigfoot, Texas, a town named for a Ranger, not the creature in the woods. But the name begs the obvious question, so let's talk about that other Bigfoot for a minute. Here's a twist most people…
One Minute of Film, Sixty Years of Doubt · 17.8 mi
You're rolling through Bigfoot, Texas, a town named for a Texas Ranger, not the creature. But that shared name earns the famous twin a detour, so here it is. The single most famous piece of Bigfoot evidence is a short…
Named for a Ranger, Not a Monster · 17.8 mi
Here's a town name that sends every imagination straight to the wrong place. Bigfoot, Texas, sitting in northeastern Frio County about eighteen miles northeast of Pearsall, has nothing to do with a hairy giant in the…
How a Man Got Called Bigfoot · 17.8 mi
Here in Bigfoot, Texas, the town wears a Ranger's old nickname, so where did a grown man pick up a name like Bigfoot? William Alexander Anderson Wallace was born in Lexington, Virginia, in eighteen seventeen, and he…
Twenty-Seven Eggs and a Best Seller · 17.8 mi
That name on the Bigfoot, Texas, sign belonged to a man who kept living the kind of life that writes itself into tall tales. After the war Wallace drove a mail hack across the brutal run from San Antonio to El Paso, and…
Pull On One Small Name · 17.8 mi
So pull on this one short town name and look at everything it holds. It holds a Virginia-born Ranger who came to Texas for revenge and stayed to become a folk hero. It holds a jar of beans that decided who lived and who…
Standing in the Cold Country · 17.8 mi
Look at where you're standing for a second. Bigfoot sits in Frio County, and Frio is simply the Spanish word for cold. The county takes the name from the Frio River, which early travelers named for its clear, cool,…
Sand Branch Baptist Church · 17.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Rossville, past the site of the Sand Branch Baptist Church. It all began under a tree near here on August 27th, 1882, with just twelve members. Their first pastor was Elder C.B. Hukill. For a…
From the South Side to Congress · 18.3 mi
U.S. Highway Two Eighty One, from Loop Four Ten to the Atascosa County line, is the Congressman Frank M. Tejeda Memorial Highway, named by the Texas Legislature in nineteen ninety seven. Tejeda grew up poor on San…
Camp Ranch Community · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through what used to be the massive Camp Ranch, west of Floresville. Back in the 1700s and 1800s, this was prime cattle country, the heart of the pre-Wilson County economy. Imagine huge herds gathering…
Campbellton · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Campbellton, a town created from Bexar County in 1856 and named for John Campbell. He came from Ireland, served as a Second Lieutenant in the Confederacy, and later established the first post office…
El Carmen Cemetery (Cementerio del Carmen) · 18.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past El Carmen Cemetery, a place with roots stretching back to a pivotal battle for Texas independence. On August 18th, 1813, the Battle of the Medina River raged. A Republican Army of the North, fighting…
Esparza, Enrique · 18.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site where a young boy named Enrique Esparza witnessed one of Texas's most famous battles. He was just 11 years old during the Siege of the Alamo, hiding in a hay pile with his family. From…
DeVilbiss, The Rev. John Wesley · 18.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through San Antonio, and right here is where a man named John Wesley DeVilbiss laid the groundwork for a whole lot of harmony. He arrived in Texas back in 1842, riding the circuit and ministering to both…
Oak Island Methodist Church and Cemetery · 18.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through San Antonio, near where Reverend John Wesly DeVilbliss, a circuit rider, arrived in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1842</say-as>. He ministered to immigrants and native Texians, promoting…
The Poor Man's Oil Field · 19.0 mi
When oil was struck here in 1913, it wasn't a gusher that made headlines around the world. Carl Kurz wasn't even looking for oil — he was drilling for artesian water. What he found was something different: oil sitting…
Drilling for 'Shallow' Gold · 19.0 mi
The Somerset oil boom was a direct result of specific geology and the simple engineering it allowed. The oil here wasn't miles down; it sat in shallow porous sand only about 1,400 feet below the surface, and the field…
Somerset, TX · 19.0 mi
Somerset's history is marked by significant economic shifts. In 1913, Carl Kurz struck oil while drilling for artesian water, leading to an economic boom. The Somerset oilfield became the largest known shallow field in…
The Battle of the Medina · 19.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a brutal battle that ended an early bid for Texas independence. On August 18, 1813, the Battle of the Medina raged right here. General Jose Joaquin Arredondo's Spanish royalist army met…
The Macaroni Line · 19.0 mi
Somerset owes its existence to a railroad that no longer runs — the Artesian Belt. It was chartered on the seventeenth of November, 1908, and it was never really about hauling other people's freight. It was chartered in…
The Man Who Built a Town · 19.0 mi
Somerset didn't happen by accident. In 1909, three men — A. M. Pyron, Carl Kurz and Jonas A. Kerr — laid a town out along the right-of-way of the Artesian Belt Railroad, timing it so the new community would have rails…
Bigfoot Wallace · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker
William Alexander Anderson Wallace came to Texas in 1837 to avenge a brother killed at Goliad and stayed for sixty years. He stood six foot two in an era when that was giant, wore moccasins his entire life because boots…
Rambie-Lewis Family Cemetery · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Rambie-Lewis Family Cemetery. This family cemetery, consisting of three graves, is a physical reminder of the hardships faced by 19th century pioneer families. Aaron Rambie, a Pennsylvania native who…
The Calaveras Wreck of 1890 · 19.3 mi
As you pass the railroad tracks, you're near the setting of the most famous legend on San Antonio's South Side, just up the road at the crossing of Shane and Villamain. The story goes back to the nineteen thirties, when…
Black Gold Near Elmendorf · 19.3 mi
Elmendorf was built out of the ground it stands on, but not the way you'd guess. The town dates to 1885 and takes its name from Henry Elmendorf, a former mayor of San Antonio and the promoter of the first brick plant.…
Elmendorf, TX · 19.3 mi
Elmendorf, a city with a rich history, was founded in 1885. It was named after Henry Elmendorf, a former mayor of San Antonio and a German-Texan. This city has been a part of the San Antonio—New Braunfels metropolitan…
Old Rock Baptist Church · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Old Rock Baptist Church, a place with roots stretching back to 1857. Originally organized as Medina Baptist Church near Macdona, services were held in homes and schoolhouses until members…
Donkey Lady Bridge · 19.8 mi
On Old Applewhite Road, south of San Antonio, a one-lane bridge built in nineteen-seventeen crosses the Medina River. It's been closed to cars since two-thousand-five and folded into the Medina River Greenway, but…

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