Deep in the heart of Texas
Texas is a state unlike any other. You may “remember the Alamo” (or the fact that it doesn’t have a basement), but there’s more to this state than just our favorite hometown of San Antonio. Texas, the second largest state in the US, covers 268,581 square miles, and became the 28th state on December 29, 1845 (prior to that it was an independent Republic). Texas definitely has a deep-rooted history and these are just a handful of interesting facts about the Lone Star State.
Interesting Facts about Texas
- Beaumont to El Paso: 742 miles, Beaumont to Chicago: 770 miles
- World’s First Rodeo: Pecos, Texas– July 4, 1883
- Flagship Hotel in Galveston – only hotel in North America built over water
- Heisman Trophy named after John William Heisman – first full time coach for Rice University, Houston
- Brazoria County — more species of birds than any other area in North America
- Port Aransas Wildlife Refuge — winter home of North America’s only remaining flock of whooping cranes
- Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978
- Worst natural disaster in US history — 1900 hurricane on Galveston Island
- First word spoken on the moon — “Houston”
- El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas
- Laredo is the world’s largest inland port
- Tyler Municipal Rose Garden is the world’s largest rose garden with over 38,000 bushes with 500 varieties on 22 acres
- King Ranch is larger than Rhode Island
- Tropical Storm Claudette brought a US rainfall record of 43” in 24 hours in and around Alvin in July 1979
- Texas is the only state to enter the US by treaty, instead of by annexation
- A live oak near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old
- Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885
- Texas has had six capital cities: Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco, West Columbia, and Austin
- The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the US which is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington DC (by 7 feet)
- The name Texas comes from the Hasini Indian word “tejas” meaning “friends”
- The state animal is the armadillo
- The first domed stadium in the US was the Astrodome in Houston
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image courtesy of rcbodden
