Cotulla is a city in La Salle County, Texas, and the seat of a sparsely populated county in the South Texas Brush Country, positioned on Interstate 35 between San Antonio and Laredo. The town traces its origins to the early 1880s, when Polish immigrant Joseph Cotulla, who had established a large ranching operation in the area, laid out the community as the International-Great Northern Railroad extended its line south. A special county election in 1883 made Cotulla the county seat, and the community incorporated in 1910. For much of its history, Cotulla functioned as the commercial and governmental center of a ranching county. Cotton, cattle, and rail commerce shaped its early economy, and oil discoveries beginning in the 1950s added an energy dimension that the Eagle Ford Shale play later amplified. Today the local economy rests on ranching, hunting leases, and oil and natural gas activity, with Cotulla serving as the hub for county services and the workforce tied to the surrounding oil fields. The town carries a notable piece of American political history: Lyndon B. Johnson taught at Cotulla's Welhausen School during the 1928-29 school year, working with Mexican-American students whose circumstances he later credited with shaping his views on civil rights and education. Downtown landmarks include the La Salle County Courthouse and the Brush Country Museum, which documents the region's Native American, Spanish, cattle, and oil heritage. Residentially, Cotulla combines older homes near its courthouse square with newer subdivision housing on the town's edges, set against a backdrop of working ranches and South Texas scrubland. It suits people connected to the area's ranching and energy industries, as well as those seeking a small-town, low-density setting with direct interstate access.