200px|right|thumb|Cotulla Historic District sign downtown (erected 2013)
thumb|right|200px|The [[Nueces River]]
Cotulla ( ) is a city in and the county seat of La Salle County, Texas, United States. Its population was 3,718 as of the 2020 census.
History
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
In 1928, after completing his freshman year at Southwest Texas State Teachers College, Lyndon Baines Johnson taught 5th, 6th, and 7th graders at the Welhausen School. He commented when he returned in 1965:
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. With declining gasoline prices, though, the Eagle Ford boom took a sharp downturn by the fall of 2015.
In 1973, two railroad locomotives collided in Cotulla, and three people were killed as a result. In 2008, the area around Cotulla burned in a huge grass fire.
Geography
Cotulla is located at (28.434144, –99.236343). This is 81 mi (147 km) southwest of San Antonio.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. The Nueces River flows through southern Cotulla in a southeastward direction to the Gulf of Mexico, near Corpus Christi.
Climate
Cotulla has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSh) with very hot summers and mild winters. The all-time record high of 116 °F (47 °C) was recorded on June 28th, 1902 and June 19th & 21st, 2023, whilst the all-time record low of 16 °F (-9 °C) was recorded on January 9th, 2010 and February 18th, 2021.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, 3,718 people, 1,294 households, and 1,110 families resided in the city. The median age was 36.9 years. 27.3% of residents were under the age of 18 and 17.9% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 89.5 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 88.0 males age 18 and over.
0.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 1,294 households in Cotulla, of which 34.1% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 37.9% were married-couple households, 18.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 34.9% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 28.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
! Race !! Number !! Percent
|-
| White || 1,555 || 41.8%
|-
| Black or African American || 17 || 0.5%
|-
| American Indian and Alaska Native || 5 || 0.1%
|-
| Asian || 4 || 0.1%
|-
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 0 || 0.0%
|-
| Some other race || 429 || 11.5%
|-
| Two or more races || 1,708 || 45.9%
|-
| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 3,244 || 87.3%
|}
2000 census
As of the census
- John Lewis Gaddis, known as the "Dean of Cold War Historians", was born in Cotulla in 1941.
- O. Henry, the short story writer, lived on a sheep ranch near Cotulla in the early 1880s with the successful goal of improving his health in the dry climate.
- Lyndon B. Johnson, U.S. President, taught public school in Cotulla from 1928 to 1929.
- Hailey Kinsel, three-time world champion barrel racer, was born and raised on her parents' cattle ranch near Cotulla.
- Phil Lyne, a former rodeo cowboy and 1979 ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee, resides in Cotulla.
- J.B. Mauney, an American professional rodeo cowboy who specializes in bull riding, competes in the Professional Bull Riders and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, and is a two-time PBR World Champion in 2013 and 2015, resides in Cotulla.
- Kevin Patrick Yeary, judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, was born in Cotulla and raised in Laredo.