Texas
Tidbits
Here are some little known, but very interesting, Texas
tidbits.
1. Port
Arthur to El Paso: 833 miles. Texarkana
to Chicago: 792 miles.
2. Brownsville
to Texline (north of
Amarillo ): 898 miles. Texline to Estevan, Canada 1,094 miles.
3. El
Paso is about as close to El Centro, California
(615 miles) as El
Paso is to
Dallas (635 miles).
4. World's first rodeo was in Pecos, TX July 4, 1883.
5. The Flagship Hotel
in Galveston is the only hotel in North
America built over water. Destroyed by Hurricane Ike - 2008!
6. The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the first full-time coach at Rice University in
Houston, Texas.
7. Brazoria
County has more species of birds than any other
area in North America having over 400 identified.
8. Aransas
Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North
America's only
remaining flock of whooping cranes.
9. Jalapeno
jelly originated in Lake Jackson in
1978.
10. The worst natural disaster US history
was in 1900, caused by a hurricane in which an estimated 6,000 to 12,000
lives were lost on Galveston
Island.
11. The
first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was " Houston " but the Space Center was
actually 25 miles away in Clear
Lake City at the time. This
is challenged, though.
12. The King Ranch in South
Texas (1,289 Square Miles) is larger than Rhode Island (1,214
Square Miles).
13. Tropical
Storm Claudette brought a US rainfall record
of 43" in 24 hours in and around Alvin in July of 1979.
14. Texas is the
only state to enter the US by TREATY, (known as
the Constitution of 1845 by the Republic of Texas to enter the Union) instead
of by annexation. Many believe his allows the Texas Flag to fly at the same
height as the US Flag, but that
claim is cited as false, and Texas may choose
to divide into 5 states. This claimed to
be party true.
15. A Live
Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old.
16. Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.
17. Dr
Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no
period in Dr Pepper.
18. Texas has had 14
capital cities.
19. The Capitol
Dome in Austin, with a height of 203.64 feet, is
one of six capitol domes in the US which, it is claimed, are taller than the Capitol
Building in Washington, DC, which is 288 feet tall. So that tradition is in error!
20. The San Jacinto
Monument is the tallest free standing stone monument
at 567.32 feet in the world and it is taller than the Washington
Monument at 554.612 feet.
21. The
name 'Texas'
comes from the Hasini Indian word 'tejas' meaning "friends." Tejas is NOT Spanish for Texas.
22. The State Mascot is the
Armadillo. An interesting bit of trivia about the
armadillo is they always have four babies. They have one egg, which splits into
four, and they either have four males or four females. In the late 1970s the Texas legislature voted down attempts to make the
armadillo the official state mammal, but in 1981 it was declared the official
state mascot by executive decree of Governor Bill Clements.
23. The first domed stadium in
the US was the Astrodome in Houston.
24. The Beck family ranch land grant was
said to be one dayŐs ride by horse (25 miles) in each direction from the
headquarters. Unfortunately, I canŐt document that, but do note that in
2017, it is listed
For Sale for $20,000,000! The listing says
it is 33,871 acres.
25. The name of the XIT ranch in Dalhart
Texas stands for "ten in texas." That means 10 counties in Texas!
ItŐs composed of more than 3,000,000 acres.
Facts
research and hyperlinks embedded by:
Dwight Albert (D. A.) Sharpe
805 Derting Road East
Aurora, TX 76078-3712
Cell 817-504-6508
E-mail da@dasharpe.com
Website www.dasharpe.com