Cuero: The Turkey Capital

Cuero sits in DeWitt County on the Guadalupe River, and its name tells you what it was built on: cuero is the Spanish word for rawhide, a fitting label for a town that began as a stop on one of the earliest cattle drives in Texas. One of the early cattle drives on what became the Chisholm Trail is said to have left the Cuero area around eighteen sixty-six. Cattle defined the town's first decades, but by the early twentieth century turkeys had taken over.

DeWitt County farmers discovered that the rolling country suited turkey raising exceptionally well, and by nineteen thirty the county was counting more than a hundred and seven thousand birds. By nineteen forty it ranked first in Texas for turkey production. Cuero called itself the Turkey Capital of the World, and it has held an annual Turkey Trot celebration since nineteen twelve.