Poteet

The plaque credits Henry Mumme with bringing strawberries to Poteet. The Handbook of Texas tells it a little differently: in 1918 Mumme met Gustav Aigner, an experienced strawberry farmer, at the San Antonio produce market, and in 1920 Aigner moved his family to Poteet. He grew Missionary strawberries, which soon became a major crop and the town's claim to fame. A three-day strawberry festival began in 1948 with Harold A. Aigner as festival king. In the 1950s the cartoonist Milton Caniff named a Steve Canyon character after the town.

What the plaque says

Poteet The town of Poteet traces its history to the 1880s, when Francis Marion Poteet (1833-1907) established a mercantile store northeast of this area. A blacksmith and farmer as well as a merchant, Poteet began providing mail service to his customers. Poteet sold his business to Henry T. Mumme (1870-1947) before 1900. Mumme continued to offer postal service at the store, and in 1910 he and his wife Ida (1869-1942) donated 400 acres of land for a new townsite. Since the area had been referred to as Poteet as a result of the early mail service, the new town was named in honor of Francis Marion Poteet. Mumme moved his store to the new townsite in 1911. Mumme drilled the town's first artesian water well and is credited with introducing the cultivation of strawberries here. The artesian water, together with the sandy soil of the region, proved ideal for growing the berries. Known statewide for its superior quality strawberries, Poteet has been nicknamed the "Strawberry Capital of Texas." The town grew steadily after 1910, with the establishment of schools, churches, homes, and businesses. It was incorporated in 1926. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Longhorn Museum — 7.6 mi
  Atascosa County in one roadside museum: longhorn-and-mustang ranching, a moved railroad depot and caboose, a horse-drawn hearse and the town that calls itself the birthplace of the cowboy.
• Atascosa County Courthouse — 8.3 mi
  The only surviving Mission Revival courthouse in Texas, built in 1912-13 on Jourdanton's town circle after a county seat vote that some residents still call a theft.
• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 21 mi
  The southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.
• Mission San Juan — 22 mi
  The mission near the river bend where the San Antonio got its name in 1691, with an unfinished church foundation and farm fields still watered by an eighteenth-century acequia.

More markers nearby

• Amphion and Amphion Cemetery — 4.2 mi
• Battle of Medina — 5.5 mi
• Pleasanton School Integration — 7.0 mi
• Capt. Peter F. Tumlinson — 7.2 mi