[6] Immigrant Joseph Cotulla, who was reared in Silesia, then a part of Prussia, migrated to the United States in the 1850s.

After learning that the International-Great Northern Railroad intended to lay tracks in La Salle County, he worked to establish the town that bears his name.

In a 2013 interview with the Laredo Morning Times, William Cotulla noted the community of his birth has changed completely in less than 80 years, having gone through several phases, beginning with emphasis on farming, then ranching, thereafter hunting leases, and now petroleum and natural gas through the Eagle Ford Shale boom.

[7] With declining gasoline prices, though, the Eagle Ford boom took a sharp downturn by the fall of 2015.

[11] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.0 square miles (5.2 km2), all land.

The Nueces River flows through southern Cotulla in a southeastward direction to the Gulf of Mexico, near Corpus Christi.

The La Salle County Courthouse in downtown Cotulla has undergone extensive renovation.