Bandera, "Cowboy Capital of the World" - Texas Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The claim of Cowboy Capital of the World is not without historical precedence. From 1874 through 1894, Bandera was the staging area for the now famous Texas cattle drives that took cattle up the Great Western Cattle Trail, which started at Bandera! Several historical societies have strong documentation of these trail drives and records of the numbers of cattle and horses ... and cowboys who moved along the trail drives. Also evidence of this claim is the continued cowboy culture exhibited in the surrounding county as well as that of the City of Bandera itself. The nearby ranches, being dude or otherwise, have perpetuated the roping, riding, branding, and herding skills that began centuries ago with the Mexican vaqueros who were early models for what we now think of as the western cowboy.
The Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate have both passed joint resolution (1984 - HR 94) and individually respective resolutions (2013 - SR 769 and 2013 - HR 2595) supporting the title of Cowboy Capital of the World as an appropriate title for Bandera. The Texas Historical Commission approved this TX historical marker and the Bandera County Historical Commission has also placed a similar late aluminum plaque next to the THC marker documenting the Texas legislature's resolutions and the history of why Bandera should be titled as Cowboy Capital of the World. Both of the plaques from these two historical commissions are mounted in the Western Trail Heritage Park on Main Street (SH16) at its intersection with Hackberry Street.
In 1948, one of the San Antonio newspapers wrote an article about the rich history of Bandera related to the cattle drives and its continued culture of cattle ranching, and was the first printed reference to being called the Cowboy Capital of the World.
And it appears from visiting the city, that the cowboy culture ... and this title ... are alive and well in Bandera.


Additional references:
(visit link)
(visit link)

Marker Number: 17596 Marker Text: The tradition of the Texas cowboy originated from northern Mexico with the vaqueros, individuals mounted on horseback who herded livestock, mainly cattle, through the open prairie. These men became legends in Bandera County. The City of Bandera became known as a cowboy town for recreation and obtaining supplies. Boys learned how to ride horses and drive cattle at a young age to earn wages on the ranches. The Western Cattle Trail extended from Mexico through Texas and up to the Canadian border and from 1874 to 1894, it is estimated that thirty thousand cowboys drove seven to ten million longhorns and one million horses through the trail using Bandera as a staging area. Local rodeos began in the 1920s when cowboys who worked the ranches started exhibiting their skills during roundups and on cattle drives. Bandera had its first rodeo in 1924 at Mansfield Park, where rodeos have continued through the years. The Buck and the Bruce ranches took in summer guests holding rodeos as entertainment. Others that followed were the Dixie Dude, Bennie's U-Bar, and the Twin Elm ranches. Bandera cowboys became famous by earning world champion titles and being inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. In 1938, Toots Mansfield was Bandera's first world champion in calf roping, earning this title on six additional occasions. He later became the first president of the National Rodeo Cowboy Association which was organized in 1945. In 1948, a San Antonio newspaper referenced Bandera as the "Cowboy Capital of the World." Since then, this title has been mentioned in numerous newspapers and magazines throughout the world. (2013) Marker is Property of the State of Texas

Visit Instructions:
Please include a picture in your log. You and your GPS receiver do not need to be in the picture. We encourage additional information about your visit (comments about the surrounding area, how you ended up near the marker, etc.) in the log.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   06/07/2020 jhuoni visited it 06/24/2017 WalksfarTX visited it 07/17/2016 Raven visited it 08/24/2015 WayBetterFinder visited it

View all visits/logs