Birthplace of the Cowboy: Pleasanton

Texas has claimed a lot of firsts, but Pleasanton holds a title the state legislature itself made official: Birthplace of the Cowboy. Founded in 1858 where the Atascosa River meets Bonita Creek, this was cattle country almost from the moment John Bowen platted the town — Longhorns had run wild here since Spanish days, and the men who learned to work them into herds became the template for the American cowboy. This short driving loop through Pleasanton's core takes in the town's founding site, the Rock Schoolhouse that doubled as a Comanche-raid shelter, a Victorian home on the National Register, a Masonic hall with 150 years of continuous history, and the radio station that put a small ranching town on the postwar airwaves. It's small-town Texas with an outsized claim to fame.