Atascosa County
Jourdanton, Atascosa County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As early as 1722 El Camino Real (The King's Highway) from the Rio Grande to San Antonio was well established in this area. The Spanish word "Atascosa," denoting boggy ground that hindered travel, gave region its name. The county was created in 1856 from land formerly in Bexar County. Jose Antonio Navarro, whose 1831 claim was the first grant recorded in area, gave land in 1857 for first county seat, Navatasco. County seat moved to Pleasanton in 1858, to Jourdanton in 1911. Livestock, oil, gas and strawberries are well-known products of the county.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
By 1722 the Camino Real—the King's Highway—already ran through this region on its way from the Rio Grande to San Antonio, crossing the boggy ground the Spanish called 'atascosa.' Carved from Bexar County in 1856, Atascosa County took that name for its muddy terrain. Its first county seat, Navatasco, rose on land granted to José Antonio Navarro before the seat moved to Pleasanton and finally Jourdanton, in a county long known for livestock, oil, gas, and strawberries.
Why it matters
The county's story runs from a Spanish colonial road to a modern ranching and oil economy, tracing three centuries of movement and settlement along a single Texas corridor.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Long before there was an Atascosa County, there was a road. By the early 1700s, Spain's Camino Real, the King's Highway, linked the Rio Grande crossings with the young settlement at San Antonio. Missionaries, soldiers, settlers and livestock all traveled it. This brush country south of San Antonio was part of that corridor, and the marker says the route was well established here as early as 1722.
The travelers left the region its name. "Atascosa" comes from a Spanish word for boggy, miry ground, the kind that bogged down carts and horses. It is a very traveler's-eye name for a place: the land was remembered as hard to get across.
The region passed from Spanish to Mexican rule and then into the Republic and State of Texas. Through all those changes, the surrounding brush and grasslands remained ranching country, settled slowly by families who took up land grants and grazed cattle across wide open ranges.
People & events
The first land grant recorded in the area belonged to José Antonio Navarro, whose claim dates to 1831. Navarro was one of the most important Tejanos in Texas history. He was a San Antonio native and one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. When Atascosa County was carved out of Bexar County in 1856, he gave land the following year for its first county seat, Navatasco.
Navatasco did not last long. In 1858 the county seat moved to Pleasanton, which held it for more than half a century. Then in 1911 it moved again, to Jourdanton, a newer town that had grown up around the railroad. Shifting county seats were a common feature of frontier Texas. Towns competed fiercely for the courthouse, knowing it brought business, traffic and prestige.
Over the generations the county built its living from the land. The marker names livestock, oil, gas and strawberries. Ranching is the oldest of these. Oil and gas came later, and strawberries became a local point of pride, especially around the town of Poteet.
Its place in the American story
Atascosa County's story is a reminder that much of the American Southwest was shaped first by Spain. The Camino Real was among the earliest long-distance roads in what is now the United States, and today it is recognized as a National Historic Trail. Highways and towns still follow lines that Spanish travelers laid down three centuries ago.
José Antonio Navarro's name on this marker is another reminder. Texas history is often told as an Anglo-American story, but Tejanos like Navarro were landholders, political leaders and founders. His land gift for a county seat shows that Hispanic Texans were helping build the state's civic institutions from the start.
The county's progression from colonial road to cattle range to oil and gas field follows a pattern seen across Texas and much of the West. Each new resource drew new people and new routes, but the oldest ones lingered beneath them.
If you visit
Jourdanton is a small county seat about forty minutes south of San Antonio. Start at the courthouse square, the anchor of the town since the seat moved here in 1911. The marker gives you a three-century story in a single paragraph, and the surrounding landscape helps you picture it.
As you drive the region, imagine the old Camino Real. Wherever the ground is low and soft after rain, you can see why travelers named the place for its bogs. The brush country, ranch fences and open pastures still reflect the livestock economy the marker describes.
For a road trip, combine Jourdanton with nearby Pleasanton, the earlier county seat, and with Poteet if strawberries are in season. San Antonio's missions are close enough to make this a natural add-on to a day exploring Spanish colonial Texas.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · José Antonio Navarro
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Jourdan Campbell
Jourdanton, TX
Jourdan Campbell, son of Campbellton founder John Campbell, grew up in Atascosa County and became a county commissioner in the 1890s. In 1907 he and Col. T. H. Zanderson bought the 33,760-acre Tobey Ranch, part of which became the town of Jourdanton, where Campbell served as bank vice president and lobbied hard for a railroad. His efforts helped make Jourdanton the county seat in 1910 and pushed a highway project linking the county's towns.
Jourdanton
Jourdanton, TX
In 1909 two entrepreneurs—merchant Jourdan Campbell and Danish wool-and-mohair man Theodore Zanderson—laid out a town on their ranch and persuaded a land speculator to bring the railroad through; the first train arrived that September. Jourdanton quickly gained utilities, a bank, a newspaper and churches, and in 1910 wrested the county seat from Pleasanton. Oil and gas discoveries in the 1940s and later lignite mining kept the town growing well after the railroads stopped running.
Pleasanton
Pleasanton, TX
Founded in 1858 and named for early settler John Pleasants, this town became the seat of Atascosa County at the junction of the Atascosa River and Bonita Creek. During the Civil War local men mustered here to form a Confederate cavalry company, but the town's lasting fame came from cattle: set amid Longhorn country, it grew into a cattlemen's capital where drovers gathered before pushing huge herds north to Kansas railheads. In the spring of 1873 alone, cowboys drove 43,000 county cattle up the trail.
Coughran
Pleasanton, TX
Founded on land bought in 1901 and named for settler W.A. "Abe" Coughran, this Atascosa County town owed its life to the railroad Coughran lured through his property. Platted in 1913, it soon boasted a cotton gin, bank, hotel, newspaper, creamery, and depot, thriving until about 1918. Decline set in during the 1920s and again after World War II, and when rail and postal service ended in 1945 and the school closed in 1956, Coughran faded.