Eagle Ford boomtown honors its history

The La Salle County Courthouse reopened this year after a major restoration. The 1931 tan brick Moderne structure is the last courthouse designed by famed Texas courthouse architect Henry Phelps. (Photo by Tom Reel/Express-News)

Today it’s one of the Eagle Ford Shale’s biggest oil boomtowns.

But Cotulla started as a gritty railroad stop in the 1800s — the sort of Wild West outpost where historians say that conductors shouted, “Cotulla! Everybody get your guns ready,” as they pulled into town.

This week the city, which was founded on 120 donated acres along the International-Great Northern Railroad, earned a designation that honors its history.

Downtown Cotulla got an official Texas Historical District Marker, with the National Register of Historic Places, the Texas Historical Commission and the U.S. Department of the Interior recognizing the district bounded by Kerr, Market, Tilden and Carrizo streets as a significant part of Texas history.

The city of held a dedication ceremony Friday.

La Salle County is one of the busiest drilling areas in the Eagle Ford and Cotulla again has become a transportation hub.

Cotulla is located along the now-crowded Interstate 35, which hums with truck traffic, and in the last few years the Gardendale Railroad south of town has transformed from having virtually no track to being a major industrial and logistics site.

But even as oil has brought new money into the region, local officials have worked to earn the historic designation.

And earlier this year, La Salle County completed the restoration of its 1931 Moderne-style courthouse, the last Texas courthouse designed by architect Henry Phelps.

- Jennifer Hiller

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