Cotulla (/kəˈtjuːlə/ kə-TEW-lə[4]) is a city in and the county seat of La Salle County, Texas, United States.[5] Its population was 3,718 as of the 2020 census.[6]
Immigrant Joseph Cotulla, who was reared in Silesia, then a part of Prussia, migrated to the United States in the 1850s. He joined the Union Army in Brownsville, Texas. He lived in Atascosa County, but arrived in La Salle County in 1868[7] to establish what became a large ranching operation. After learning that the International-Great Northern Railroad intended to lay tracks in La Salle County, he worked to establish the town that bears his name.
In 1881, Cotulla donated 120 acres of his land to the railroad, and in 1882, a depot was constructed there. In 1883, the town was granted a post office. The same year, Cotulla became the county seat by special election.[8]
Joseph Cotulla's great-grandson, William Lawrence Cotulla (born around 1936), a former storekeeper in Cotulla, is a rancher in La Salle, Dimmit, and Webb Counties. In a 2013 interview with the Laredo Morning Times, William Cotulla noted the community of his birth has changed completely in less than 80 years, having gone through several phases, beginning with emphasis on farming, then ranching, thereafter hunting leases, and now petroleum and natural gas through the Eagle Ford Shale boom.[7] With declining gasoline prices, though, the Eagle Ford boom took a sharp downturn by the fall of 2015.[9]
In 1973, two railroad locomotives collided in Cotulla, and three people were killed as a result.[10] In 2008, the area around Cotulla burned in a huge grass fire.
Cotulla is located at 28°26′3″N 99°14′11″W / 28.43417°N 99.23639°W / 28.43417; -99.23639 (28.434144, –99.236343). This is 81 mi (147 km) southwest of San Antonio.[11]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.0 square miles (5.2 km2), all land. The Nueces River flows through southern Cotulla in a southeastward direction to the Gulf of Mexico, near Corpus Christi.
According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Cotulla has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.