Texas Monthly’s Small-town Travel series explores the culture and history of destinations off the beaten path, offering advice on where to stay, eat, and sightsee. Millions of Longhorns once clattered through Bandera, prodded by whooping cowboys as they headed to markets up north via the Great Western Cattle Trail, starting around 1874.The proliferation of barbed wire, along with a ban on Texas cattle imports after an outbreak of disease, put an end to those drives after two decades, but the cowboy spirit stuck around. Dude ranches opened in the twenties, and city folk flocked to the Hill Country town along the Medina River for a taste of a fading way of life. There, they could listen to strumming guitars, twirl a lasso, and learn how to two-step,…The post Where to Stay, Shop, Ride, and Two-step in Bandera, the Cowboy Capital of the World appeared first on Texas Monthly.