Lockhart, TX

Lockhart is the county seat of Caldwell County, southeast of Austin, and one of Texas's best-known barbecue towns. It is named for Byrd Lockhart, an assistant surveyor for Green DeWitt and reportedly the first Anglo settler to set foot in the area. The city celebrates Chisholm Trail history, and Lockhart High School's Lions are a familiar local institution. Lockhart feels like a courthouse-square town with real regional flavor: barbecue smoke, old brick buildings, ranch-country edges, and Austin growth moving closer.