Longhorn Museum

Pleasanton's Longhorn Museum stands beside Highway 97 under a steel arch topped with a longhorn. Its collection tells Atascosa County history in order: longhorn cattle and mustangs, ranching, home life and farming, then the oil fields, uranium mines and coal strip mines of later years. Outside is the town's former San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf depot, moved here with a Union Pacific caboose. A wild game exhibit holds mounted animals, and the museum doubles as the town's visitor center.

The museum bills the area as the Birthplace of the Cowboy. In 1858 the county seat moved to a new townsite at the mouth of Bonita Creek on land John Bowen gave, and the town, named for settler John Pleasant, became a gathering point for hands driving cattle to Kansas. The Stock Raisers Association of Western Texas often met here, and since 1966 the Cowboy Homecoming each August has marked that history. The Handbook of Texas notes that locals call it the birthplace of the cowboy but does not verify the claim. Atascosa County counted 92,047 cattle in 1870.

The land is older than the ranches. Coahuiltecan peoples lived across the county for thousands of years, and the city says the ground beneath the museum once belonged to a Mission San José ranch. Admission is free, and donations are welcome.