Burton is a small city in Washington County, Texas, on U.S. Highway 290 about 12 miles west of Brenham, the county seat, in the rolling, historically significant countryside between Houston and Austin. Its roughly 300 residents live in a community that has preserved a remarkable piece of Texas agricultural history even as its population has remained small. The town's roots reach into the nineteenth century, and its place in Texas lore is secured by more than cotton. Leander H. McNelly, one of the most famous Texas Rangers, was buried near Burton in 1877, linking the community to the state's frontier history. For most of its life Burton has been a quiet farm-and-ranch town, part of a Washington County landscape known for its German and Czech settlement heritage, its wildflower-draped pastures, and its role in the Texas Revolution's founding story. Burton's signature attraction is the Texas Cotton Gin Museum, which preserves the 1914 Burton Farmers Gin on Main Street. Recognized as the oldest operating cotton gin in America, the gin and its surrounding complex tell the story of cotton's central place in Texas agriculture, and the museum draws visitors touring the Brenham and Round Top area. The town's position along Highway 290 and its proximity to Round Top's antiques shows and Brenham's Blue Bell Creameries anchor it within a popular Central Texas visitor corridor. The Burton Independent School District serves local students. Who Burton suits: it appeals to those seeking a quiet, historic small-town or rural setting in Washington County, within reach of Brenham, Round Top, and the Houston-Austin corridor, and drawn to the area's agricultural heritage and countryside.