IUKA, TEXAS (La Salle County). Iuka, also known as Old Cochina, was a small settlement beside Cochina Lake eight miles west of the site of present Cotulla in western La Salle County. Iuka was one of the first settlements in the county and was established in 1868 by a group of families, mostly of Mexican descent, from Frio County. They lived in about twenty shacks built near the lake. The community had a post office from 1880 until 1882. It was a stage stop on the road between San Antonio and Laredo and was often visited by cattle buyers; John de Spain's small store, with its barrel of liquor and two gambling tables, attracted card sharks and other nefarious characters. Only two families still lived in the community in 1881. By 1929 only a few graves remained to mark the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Stanley D. Casto, Settlement of the Cibolo-Nueces Strip: A Partial History of La Salle County (Hillsboro, Texas: Hill Junior College Press, 1969). Annette Martin Ludeman, La Salle: La Salle County (Quanah, Texas: Nortex, 1975).
