60 Interesting Facts About Texas

Facts About Texas

Facts About Texas

  • People first came to the area that is now Texas at least 16,700 years ago. Thousands of years later Native American tribes, including the Akokisa, Karankawa, Mogollon, and Comanche, lived on the land.
  • Between 1836 to 1845, Texas was an independent country.
  • The second-largest canyon in the USA is in Texas, Palo Duro Canyon is situated in the panhandle of the state.
  • Texas has two national parks: Big Bend National Park and Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
  • The largest bat colony in the United States is in Texas.
  • Texas has been ruled by six nations:  Spain, France, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, The Confederate States of America, and the United States of America.
  • Texas has 3,700 named streams and 15 major rivers, with the Rio Grande as the largest.
  • Texas has 254 counties.
  • Texas State Fair is the Largest Fair in the United States.
  • Texas is the second-largest state in the United States of America, with an area of 268,820 square miles.
  • Texas lies between two major cultural spheres of Pre-Columbian North America: the Southwestern and the Plains areas.
  • Texas has around 139 tornadoes on average per year.
  • Texas is a state in the South Central region of the United States.
  • The state fish is the Guadalupe bass.
  • Three of the most populous cities in the United States are in Texas: Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
  • Austin is home to the fastest road in the United States of America, highway 130 between Austin and Seguin has a speed limit of 85 mph.
  • The state bird is the Mockingbird.
  • The Texas Rangers is the oldest statewide law enforcement agency, unofficially founded back in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin.
  • The state song is called ‘Texas, our Texas.
  • Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest, and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast.
  • Texas is known as The Lone Star State.
  • Juneteenth, the federal holiday that celebrates freedom for enslaved people, started in Texas.
  • The square dance is the state folk dance.
  • Texas was the 28th state to join the Union. It became a state on December 29, 1845.
  • Texas is the 2nd most populous state in the United States, with an estimated population of 29 million, as of 2019.
  • The first historical document related to Texas was a map of the Gulf Coast, created in 1519 by Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda.
  • The armadillo is the official state mammal.
  • Dr. Pepper was Invented in Texas, Originating in 1885 from a pharmacist at Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Texas.
  • The State Motto is “friendship”.
  • Texas is home to the World’s Largest Honky-Tonk.
  • Texas uses its own power grid, separate from the rest of the United States.
  • Two Presidents of the United States Were Born in Texas, Lyndon B. Johnson and Dwight Eisenhower.
  • The state’s capital is Austin.
  • The Texas State Capitol building is the largest state capitol in the nation.
  • There are more than 1.5 million undocumented immigrants in Texas.
  • The Frozen Margarita Machine was Invented in Texas.
  • Texas has the second-highest number of Fortune 500 companies in the United States.
  • Amarillo is considered the “Helium Capital of the World.”
  • Texas has a city named Earth and making it the only place named after Planet Earth.
  • A large portion of the Texas Hill Country was settled by German immigrants in the early 1900s. During this time of settlement, these immigrants developed a unique dialect of the German language.
  • The time zone in Texas is Central Time Zone.
  • The Republic of Texas’ first president was Sam Houston. His statue, erected in 1994, is the biggest statue in America which represents a real person.
  • Texas has more cattle than any other state in the country.
  • The state tree is the pecan tree.
  • Texas is 790 miles long and 660 miles wide at its most distant points.
  • The first shopping centre in the United States was the Highland Park Village in Texas, which was built in 1931.
  • The state flower is the Bluebonnet.
  • Texas has the second-highest number of professional sports teams after California.
  • Texas is the leading producer of oil, natural gas, and sulfur in the country.
  • The state insect is the Monarch butterfly.
  • The Guinness World Record for the oldest married couple is held by a couple from Texas, whose combined age is 211.
  • Two doctors namely Frank Gerow and Thomas Cronin are credited with the invention of breast implants. In 1962, the first of these implants were done on Texan Timmie Jean Lindsay.
  • The Texas red grapefruit is the state fruit.
  • The name Texas has originated from the word taysha, which means “friends” in the Caddo, native American, language.
  • The man who assassinated US President John F. Kennedy, called Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested in Dallas, Texas.
  • The deadliest natural disaster in United States history occurred in Texas. The Great Galveston Storm of 1900.
  • King Ranch, located in Kingsville, is larger than the state of Rhode Island.
  • The state vegetable is the sweet onion.
  • Texas has the fourth largest wind farm in the world with more than 100,000 acres of turbines.
  • US President George W. Bush was the governor of Texas for two terms.

 

Facts About Texas
Facts About Texas