Texas (redirected from The Lone Star State)

Texas (tĕk`səs), largest state in the coterminous United States. It is located in the S Central part of the country and is bounded by Oklahoma, across the Red R. except in the Texas panhandle (N); Arkansas (NE); Louisiana, across the Sabine R. (E); the Gulf of Mexico (SE); Mexico, across the Rio Grande R. (SW); and New Mexico (W).

Facts and Figures

Area, 267,338 sq mi (692,405 sq km). Pop. (2000) 20,851,820, a 22.8% increase since the 1990 census. Capital, Austin. Largest city, Houston. Statehood, Dec. 29, 1845 (28th state). Highest pt., Guadalupe Peak, 8,751 ft (2,667 m); lowest pt., sea level. Nickname, Lone Star State. Motto, Friendship. State bird, mockingbird. State flower, bluebonnet. State tree, pecan. Abbr., Tex., TX

Geography

Texas is roughly spade shaped. The vast expanse of the state contains great regional differences (the distance from Beaumont to El Paso is greater than that from New York to Chicago).

East Texas

East Texas—the land between the Sabine and Trinity rivers—is Southern in character, with pine-covered hills, cypress swamps, and remnants of the great cotton plantations founded before the Civil War. Cotton farming has been supplemented by diversified agriculture, including rice cultivation; almost all of the state's huge rice crop comes from East Texas, and even the industrial cities of Beaumont and Port Arthur are surrounded by rice fields. The inland pines still supply a lumbering industry; Huntsville, Lufkin, and Nacogdoches are important lumber towns. The real wealth of East Texas, however, comes from its immense, rich oil fields. Longview is an oil center, and Tyler is the headquarters of the East Texas Oil Field. Oil is also the economic linchpin of Beaumont and Port Arthur and the basis for much of the heavy industry that crowds the Gulf Coast.

Gulf Coast

The industrial heart of the coastal area is Houston, the fourth largest city in the nation. Houston's development was spearheaded by the digging (1912–14) of a ship canal to the Gulf of Mexico, and the city today is the nation's second largest port in tonnage handled. Other Gulf ports in Texas are Galveston, Texas City, Brazosport (formerly Freeport), Port Lavaca, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville.

The S Gulf Coast is a popular tourist area, and some of the ports, such as Galveston and Corpus Christi, have economies dependent on both heavy industry and tourism. Brownsville, the southernmost Texas city and the terminus of the Intracoastal Waterway, is also the shipping center for the intensively farmed and irrigated Winter Garden section along the lower Rio Grande, where citrus fruits and winter vegetables are grown.

Rio Grande Valley

The long stretch of plains along the Rio Grande valley is largely given over to cattle ranching. Texas has c.1,000 mi (1,610 km) of border with Mexico. Some S and W Texas towns are bilingual, and in some areas persons of Mexican descent make up the majority of the population. Laredo is the most important gateway here to Mexico, with an excellent highway to Mexico City and important over-the-border commerce.

Blackland Prairies

The first region to be farmed when Americans came to Texas in the 1820s was the bottomland of the lower Brazos and the Colorado, but not until settlers moved into the rolling blackland prairies of central and N central Texas was the agricultural wealth of the area realized. The heart of this region is the trading and shipping center of Waco; at the southwest extremity is San Antonio, the commercial center of a wide cotton, grain, and cattle country belt. To the north, Dallas and the neighboring city of Fort Worth together form one of the most rapidly developing U.S. metropolitan areas. Their oil-refining, grain-milling, and cotton- and food-processing capabilities have been supplemented since World War II by aircraft-manufacturing and computer and electronics industries.

High Plains

The Balcones Escarpment marks the western margin of the Gulf Coastal Plain; in central Texas the line is visible in a series of waterfalls and rough, tree-covered hills. To the west lie the south central plains and the Edwards Plateau; they are essentially extensions of the Great Plains but are sharply divided from the high, windswept, and canyon-cut Llano Estacado (Staked Plain) in the W Panhandle by the erosive division of the Cap Rock Escarpment.

No traces of the subtropical lushness of the Gulf Coastal Plain are found in these regions; the climate is semiarid, with occasional blizzards blowing across the flat land in winter. The Red River area, including the farming and oil center of Wichita Falls, can have extreme cold in winter, though without the severity that is intermittently experienced in Amarillo, the commercial center of the Panhandle, or in the dry-farming area around Lubbock. Cattle raising began here in the late 1870s (settlers were slow in coming to the High Plains), and huge ranches vie with extensive wheat and cotton farms for domination of the treeless land. Oil and grain, however, have revolutionized the economy of this section of the state.

West Texas

All of West Texas (that part of the state west of long. 100°W) is semiarid. South of the Panhandle lie the rolling plains around Abilene, a region cultivated in cotton, sorghum, and wheat and the site of oil fields discovered in the 1940s. The dry fields of West Texas are still given over to ranching, except for small irrigated areas that can be farmed. San Angelo serves as the commercial center of this area. The Midland-Odessa oil patch lies northeast of the Pecos River and is part of the Permian (West Texas) Basin, an oil field that extends into SE New Mexico.

The land beyond the Pecos River, rising to the mountains with high, sweeping plains and rough uplands, offers the finest scenery of Texas. There are found the Davis Mts. and Guadalupe Peak, the highest point (8,751 ft/2,667 m) in the state. The wilderness of the Big Bend of the Rio Grande is typical of the barrenness of most of this area, where water and people are almost equally scarce. El Paso, with diverse industries and major cross-border trade with Mexico, is a population oasis in the region.

Places of Interest

The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is in the Houston area. Other places of interest in the state include Big Bend National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Amistad and Lake Meredith national recreation areas, Padre Island National Seashore, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (see National Parks and Monuments, table), and Arkansas National Wildlife Refuge, winter home of the whooping crane. Austin is the capital; Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio are the largest cities.

Economy

Mineral resources compete with industry for primary economic importance in Texas. The state is the leading U.S. producer of oil, natural gas, and natural-gas liquids, despite recent production declines. It is also a major producer of helium, salt, sulfur, sodium sulfate, clays, gypsum, cement, and talc. Texas manufactures an enormous variety of products, including chemicals and chemical products, petroleum, food and food products, transportation equipment, machinery, and primary and fabricated metals. The development and manufacture of electronic equipment, such as computers, has in recent decades become one of the state's leading industries; the area around Dallas–Fort Worth has become known as "Silicon Prairie," a name now also extended to Austin and its suburbs.

Agriculturally, Texas is one of the most important states in the country. It easily leads the nation in producing cattle, cotton, and cottonseed. Texas also has more farms, farmland, sheep, and lambs than any other state. Principal crops are cotton lint, grains, sorghum, vegetables, citrus and other fruits, and rice; the greatest farm income is derived from cattle, cotton, dairy products, and greenhouse products. Hogs, wool, and mohair are also significant. Among other important Texas crops are melons, wheat, pecans, oats, and celery. Texas also has an important commercial fishing industry. Principal catches are shrimp, oysters, and menhaden.

Government, Politics, and Higher Education

The present constitution of Texas was adopted in 1876, replacing the "carpetbag" constitution of 1869. The state's executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. Democrat Ann Richards, elected governor in 1990, was defeated for reelection in 1994 by Republican George W. Bush; Bush won reelection in 1998. After Bush was elected president of the United States, Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry succeeded him as governor (Dec., 2000) and was elected to the office in 2002 and 2006. The state's legislature has a senate with 31 members and a house with 150 representatives. The state elects 2 senators and 30 representatives to the U.S. Congress and has 32 electoral votes. Texas politics were dominated by Democrats from the end of Reconstruction into the 1960s, but Republicans have achieved parity since then.

Among the many institutions of higher learning in Texas are the Univ. of Texas, mainly at Austin, but with large branches at Arlington, El Paso, and the Dallas suburb of Richardson; Baylor Univ., at Waco; East Texas State Univ., at Commerce; Univ. of North Texas, at Denton; Rice Univ., at Houston; Southern Methodist Univ., at Dallas; Texas Agricultural and Mechanical Univ., at College Station; Texas Arts and Industries Univ., at Kingsville; Texas Christian Univ., at Fort Worth; and Texas Southern Univ. and the Univ. of Houston, both at Houston.

History

Spanish Exploration and Colonization

The region that is now Texas was early known to the Spanish, who were, however, slow to settle there. Cabeza de Vaca, shipwrecked off the coast in 1528, wandered through the area in the 1530s, and Coronado probably crossed the northwest section in 1541. De Soto died before reaching Texas, but his men continued west, crossing the Red River in 1542. The first Spanish settlement was made (1682) at Ysleta on the site of present day El Paso by refugees from the area that is now New Mexico after the Pueblo revolt of 1680. Several missions were established in the area; but the Comanche, Apache, and other Native American tribes resented their encroachment, and the settlements did not flourish.

A French expedition led by La Salle penetrated E Texas in 1685 after failing to locate the mouth of the Mississippi. This incursion, though brief, stirred the Spanish to establish missions to hold the area. The first mission, founded in 1690 near the Neches, was named Francisco de los Tejas after the so-called tejas [friends]: Native Americans. This is also the origin of the state's name. In general, however, Spanish attempts to gain wealth from the wild region and to convert the indigenous population were unsuccessful, and in most places occupation was desultory.

American Expeditions and Settlement

By the early 19th cent. Americans were covetously eyeing Texas, especially after the Louisiana Purchase (1803) had extended the U.S. border to that fertile wilderness. Attempts to free Texas from Spanish rule were made in the expeditions of the adventurers Gutiérrez and Magee (1812–13) and James Long (1819). In 1821 Moses Austin secured a colonization grant from the Spanish authorities in San Antonio. He died from the rigors of his return trip from that distant outpost, but his son, Stephen F. Austin, had the grant confirmed and in Dec., 1821, led 300 families across the Sabine River to the region between the Brazos and Colorado rivers, where they established the first American settlement in Texas. Austin is known as the father of Texas.

The newly independent government of Mexico, pleased with Austin's prospering colony, readily offered grants to other American promoters and even gave huge land tracts to individual settlers. Americans from all over the Union, but particularly from the South, poured into Texas, and within a decade a considerable number of settlements had been established at Brazoria, Washington-on-the-Brazos, San Felipe de Austin, Anahuac, and Gonzales. The Americans easily avoided Mexican requirements that all settlers be Roman Catholic, but conflict with Mexican settlers over land titles resulted in the Fredonian Rebellion (1826–27).

By 1830 the Americans outnumbered the Mexican settlers by more than three to one and had formed their own society. The Mexican government became understandably concerned. Its sporadic attempts to tighten control over Texas had been hampered by its own political instability, but in 1830 measures were taken to stop the influx of Americans. Troops were sent to police the border, close the seaports, occupy the towns, and levy taxes on imported goods. The troops were withdrawn in 1832, when Mexico was again in political upheaval, but the Texans, alarmed and hoping to achieve a greater measure of self-government, petitioned Mexico for separate statehood (Texas was then part of Coahuila). When Austin presented the petition in Mexico City, Antonio López de Santa Anna had become military dictator. Austin was arrested and imprisoned for eighteen months, and Texas was regarrisoned.

Independence from Mexico

The Texas Revolution broke out (1835) in Gonzales when the Mexicans attempted to disarm the Americans and were routed. The American settlers then drove all the Mexican troops from Texas, overwhelming each command in surprise attacks. At a convention called at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas declared its independence (Mar. 2, 1836). A constitution was adopted and David Burnet was named interim president.

The arrival of Santa Anna with a large army that sought to crush the rebellion resulted in the famous defense of the Alamo and the massacre of several hundred Texans captured at Goliad. Santa Anna then divided his huge force to cover as much territory as possible. The small Texas army, commanded by Samuel Houston, protected their rear, retreating strategically until Houston finally maneuvered Santa Anna into a cul-de-sac formed by heavy rains and flooding bayous, near the site of present-day Houston. In the battle of San Jacinto (Apr. 21, 1836), Houston surprised the larger Mexican force and scored a resounding victory. Santa Anna was captured and compelled to recognize the independence of Texas.

The Texas Republic and U.S. Annexation

Texans sought annexation to the United States, but antislavery forces in the United States vehemently opposed the admission of another slave state, and Texas remained an independent republic under its Lone Star flag for almost 10 years. The Texas constitution was closely modeled after that of the United States, but slaveholding was expressly recognized. Houston, the hero of the Texas Revolution, was the leading figure of the Republic, serving twice as president.

Under President Mirabeau Lamar large tracts of land were granted as endowments for educational institutions, and Austin was made (1839) the new capital of the republic. Despite the efforts of presidents Houston and Anson Jones, a combination of factors—confusion in the land system, insufficient credit abroad, and the expense of maintaining the Texas Rangers and protecting Texas from marauding Mexican forces—contributed to impoverishing the republic and increasing the urgency for its annexation to the United States.

Southerners pressed hard for the admission of Texas, the intrigues of British and French diplomats in Texas aroused U.S. concern, and expansionist policies began to gain popular support. President Tyler narrowly pushed the admission of Texas through Congress shortly before the expiration of his term; Texas formally accepted annexation in July, 1845. This act was the immediate cause of the Mexican War. After Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexicans at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, the Mexican forces retreated back across the Rio Grande.

Civil War and Reconstruction

During the pre–Civil War period settlers, attracted by cheap land, poured into Texas. Although open range cattle ranching was beginning to spread rapidly, cotton was the state's chief crop. The planter class, with its slaveholding interests, was strong and carried the state for the Confederacy, despite the opposition of Sam Houston and his followers. During the Civil War, Texas was the only Confederate state not overrun by Union troops. Remaining relatively prosperous, it liberally contributed men and provisions to the Southern cause.

Reconstruction brought great lawlessness, aggravated by the appearance of roving desperadoes. Radical Republicans, carpetbaggers, and scalawags controlled the government for several years, during which time they managed to lay the foundations for better road and school systems. Texas was readmitted to the Union in Mar., 1870, after ratifying the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. Although Texas was not as racially embittered as the Deep South, the Ku Klux Klan and its methods flourished for a time as a means of opposing the policies of the radical Republicans.

The Late Nineteenth Century

Reconstruction in Texas ended in 1874 when the Democrats took control of the government. The following decade was politically conservative, highlighted by the passage of the constitution of 1876, which, although frequently amended, remains the basic law of the state. As in the rest of the South, the war and Reconstruction had resulted in the breakdown of the plantation system and the rise of tenant farming. This did not, however, have as marked an effect as elsewhere, partly because much of the land was still unsettled, but in greater measure, perhaps, because the Texas tradition is only partly Southern.

In the decades following the Civil War the Western element in Texas was strengthened as stock raising became a dominant element in Texas life. This was the era of the buffalo hunter and of the last of the Native American uprisings. From the open range and then from great fenced ranches, Texas cowboys drove herds of longhorn cattle over trails such as the Chisholm Trail to the railheads in Kansas and even farther to the grasslands of Montana. The traditional symbols of Texas are more the "ten-gallon" hat, the cattle brand, and spurs and saddles than anything reminiscent of the Old South.

As railroads advanced across the state during the 1870s, farmlands were increasingly settled, and the small farmers (the "nesters") came into violent conflict with the ranchers, a conflict which was not resolved until the governorship of John Ireland. Many European immigrants—especially Germans and Bohemians (Czechs)—took part in the peopling of the plains (they continued to arrive in the 20th cent., when many Mexicans also entered). Agrarian discontent saw the rise of the Greenback party, and during the 1880s demands for economic reform and limitation of the railroads' vast land domains were championed by the Farmers' Alliance and Gov. James S. Hogg. However, antitrust legislation was insufficient to curb the power of big business.

Oil, Industrialization, and World Wars

The transformation of Texas into a partly urban and industrial society was greatly hastened by the uncovering of the state's tremendous oil deposits. The discovery in 1901 of the spectacular Spindletop oil field near Beaumont dwarfed previous finds in Texas, but Spindletop itself was later surpassed as oil was discovered in nearly every part of Texas. Texas industry developed rapidly during the early years of the 20th cent., but conditions worsened for the tenant farmers, who by 1910 made up the majority of cultivators. Discontented tenants were largely responsible for the election of James Ferguson as governor.

World War I had a somewhat liberating effect on African-American Texans, but the reappearance of the Ku Klux Klan after the war helped to enforce "white supremacy." The economic boom of the 1920s was accompanied by further industrialization. The Great Depression of the 1930s, while severe, was less serious than in most states; the chemical and oil industries in particular continued to grow (the East Texas Oil Field was discovered in 1930).

The significance of the petrochemical and natural gas industries increased during World War II, when the aircraft industry also rose to prominence and the establishment of military bases throughout Texas greatly contributed to the state's economy. Postwar years brought continued prosperity and industrial expansion, although in the 1950s the state experienced the worst drought in its history and had its share of destructive hurricanes and flooding.

Many projects for increased flood control, improved irrigation, and enhanced power supply have been undertaken in Texas; notable among these are Denison Dam, forming Lake Texoma (shared between Texas and Oklahoma); Lewisville Dam and its reservoir, supplying Fort Worth and Dallas; Lake Texarkana on the Sulphur River; and Falcon Dam and its reservoir on the Rio Grande. The Amistad Dam on the Rio Grande, serving both the United States and Mexico, was completed in 1969.

Industry in the Late Twentieth Century

In the 1960s, Texas began to develop its technology industries as oil became less easy to exploit—even though soaring oil prices in the 1970s caused the energy industry to boom. Since then, the state has become a preferred location for the headquarters of large corporations from airlines and retail chains to telecommunications and chemical companies. High-technology industries have boomed since the 1980s, especially in the Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin areas. The state's economy proved still vulnerable to the fluctuations of the energy industry in the mid-1980s, however, when falling oil prices resulted in massive layoffs, hurting the state's real estate market and in turn precipitating the failure of hundreds of savings and loans in the state.

Texas has, however, continued to grow, becoming the second most populous state in the nation. Its population increased by nearly 23% between 1990 and 2000, and its economy slowly recovered in the 1990s. Its political influence has grown commensurately, and since the 1960s three sons (or adopted sons) of Texas have been president of the nation: Lyndon Johnson, George Herbert Walker Bush, and George Walker Bush. In Sept., 2005, SE Texas suffered extensive damage as a result of Hurricane Rita, but it was spared the devastating storm surge that ravaged the neighboring SW Louisiana coast.

Bibliography

See T. G. Jordan, German Seed in Texas Soil: Immigrant Farmers in Nineteenth-Century Texas (1967); Trails to Texas: Southern Roots of Western Cattle Ranching (1981); and et al., Texas (1984); K. W. Wheeler, To Wear a City's Crown: The Beginnings of Urban Growth in Texas, 1836–1865 (1968); S. V. Connor, Texas, A History (1971); W. Seale, Texas in Our Time: A History of Texas in the Twentieth Century (1972); W. Holmes, The Encyclopedia of Texas (1984); R. N. Richardson et al., Texas, the Lone Star State (5th ed. 1988); L. A. Herzog, Where North Meets South: Cities, Space, and Politics on the United States–Mexican Border (1990); H. W. Brands, Lone Star Nation (2004); see also Texas Almanac (latest edition).

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Texas

State (pop., 2000: 20,851,820), southwestern U.S. Occupying 266,853 sq mi (691,146 sq km), it is the second largest state in both area and population. Many of Texas's boundaries are formed by water—the course of the Red River on the north makes up two-thirds of the state's boundary with Oklahoma; on the east the state is bordered in part by Arkansas, though the Sabine River forms most of Texas's eastern boundary with Louisiana; the Gulf of Mexico forms the coastal boundary to the southeast; the Rio Grande carves a shallow channel that separates Texas from Mexico on the southwest; the Panhandle section juts northward, forming a counterpart in the western part of Oklahoma; and New Mexico lies to the west. The capital of Texas is Austin. Plains and hills make up the terrain, which ranges from the fertile prairie of the Coastal Plains on the Gulf of Mexico through the central Great Plains grasslands to the arid High Plains of the Panhandle. The forerunners of West Texas Indians inhabited the area as much as 37,000 years ago. Some of the peoples later formed the Caddo confederacy. Indians, including Apaches, were living in the region when the Spanish arrived in 1528. The first settlement was attempted in 1685 by the French, who claimed the region as part of Louisiana. In 1803 the U.S. acquired the French claim in the Louisiana Purchase but relinquished it to Spain by treaty in 1819. It became part of Mexico at Mexican independence in 1821. In 1836 Texans declared independence from Mexico as the Republic of Texas (see Stephen Austin; Sam Houston). After a 10-year struggle to remain independent, Texas became the 28th U.S. state in 1845. Its boundary with Mexico was fixed after the Mexican War (1848). In the American Civil War it seceded from the Union (1861); it was readmitted in 1869. After the war, railroad building and increased shipping helped expand the economy, and the discovery of oil in 1901 transformed it. While Texas still leads all other states in oil and natural gas production and in petroleum-refining capacity, its manufacture of electronics, aerospace components, and other high-technology items is increasingly important. It is also the leading cotton, beef cattle, and sheep producer in the U.S.

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Texas

a state of the southwestern US, on the Gulf of Mexico: the second largest state; part of Mexico from 1821 to 1836, when it was declared an independent republic; joined the US in 1845; consists chiefly of a plain, with a wide flat coastal belt rising up to the semiarid Sacramento and Davis Mountains of the southwest; a major producer of cotton, rice, and livestock; the chief US producer of oil and gas; a leading world supplier of sulphur. Capital: Austin. Pop.: 22 118 509 (2003 est.). Area: 678 927 sq. km (262 134 sq. miles)

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Texas State Information

Phone: (512) 463-4630
www.texas.gov


Area (sq mi): 268580.82 (land 261797.12; water 6783.70). Pop per sq mi: 87.30.
Pop 2005: 22,859,968. State rank: 0. Pop change: 2000-20005 9.60%; 1990-2000 22.80%. Pop 2000: 20,851,820 (White 52.40%; Black or African American 11.50%; Hispanic or Latino 32.00%; Asian 2.70%; Other 14.90%). Foreign born: 13.90%. Median age: 32.30.
Income 2000: per capita $19,617; median household $39,927; Pop below poverty level: 15.40%. *Personal per capita income 2000-2003: $28,313-$29,074.
Unemployment 2004: 6.00%. Change from 2000: 1.60%. Median travel time to work: 25.40 minutes. Working outside county of residence: 21.40%.

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List of Texas counties:

Anderson County Andrews County Angelina County Aransas County Archer County Armstrong County Atascosa County Austin County Bailey County Bandera County Bastrop County Baylor County Bee County Bell County Bexar County Blanco County Borden County Bosque County Bowie County Brazoria County Brazos County Brewster County Briscoe County Brooks County Brown County Burleson County Burnet County Caldwell County Calhoun County Callahan County Cameron County Camp County Carson County Cass County Castro County Chambers County Cherokee County Childress County Clay County Cochran County Coke County Coleman County Collin County Collingsworth County Colorado County Comal County Comanche County Concho County Cooke County Coryell County Cottle County

Crane County Crockett County Crosby County Culberson County Dallam County Dallas County Dawson County Deaf Smith County Delta County Denton County DeWitt County Dickens County Dimmit County Donley County Duval County Eastland County Ector County Edwards County El Paso County Ellis County Erath County Falls County Fannin County Fayette County Fisher County Floyd County Foard County Fort Bend County Franklin County Freestone County Frio County Gaines County Galveston County Garza County Gillespie County Glasscock County Goliad County Gonzales County Gray County Grayson County Gregg County Grimes County Guadalupe County Hale County Hall County Hamilton County Hansford County Hardeman County Hardin County Harris County Harrison County

Hartley County Haskell County Hays County Hemphill County Henderson County Hidalgo County Hill County Hockley County Hood County Hopkins County Houston County Howard County Hudspeth County Hunt County Hutchinson County Irion County Jack County Jackson County Jasper County Jeff Davis County Jefferson County Jim Hogg County Jim Wells County Johnson County Jones County Karnes County Kaufman County Kendall County Kenedy County Kent County Kerr County Kimble County King County Kinney County Kleberg County Knox County La Salle County Lamar County Lamb County Lampasas County Lavaca County Lee County Leon County Liberty County Limestone County Lipscomb County Live Oak County Llano County Loving County Lubbock County Lynn County

Madison County Marion County Martin County Mason County Matagorda County Maverick County McCulloch County McLennan County McMullen County Medina County Menard County Midland County Milam County Mills County Mitchell County Montague County Montgomery County Moore County Morris County Motley County Nacogdoches County Navarro County Newton County Nolan County Nueces County Ochiltree County Oldham County Orange County Palo Pinto County Panola County Parker County Parmer County Pecos County Polk County Potter County Presidio County Rains County Randall County Reagan County Real County Red River County Reeves County Refugio County Roberts County Robertson County Rockwall County Runnels County Rusk County Sabine County San Augustine County San Jacinto County

San Patricio County San Saba County Schleicher County Scurry County Shackelford County Shelby County Sherman County Smith County Somervell County Starr County Stephens County Sterling County Stonewall County Sutton County Swisher County Tarrant County Taylor County Terrell County Terry County Throckmorton County Titus County Tom Green County Travis County Trinity County Tyler County Upshur County Upton County Uvalde County Val Verde County Van Zandt County Victoria County Walker County Waller County Ward County Washington County Webb County Wharton County Wheeler County Wichita County Wilbarger County Willacy County Williamson County Wilson County Winkler County Wise County Wood County Yoakum County Young County Zapata County Zavala County

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Texas Parks

• US National Parks

  Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument Amistad National Recreation Area Big Bend National Park Big Thicket National Preserve Chamizal National Memorial

  Fort Davis National Historic Site Guadalupe Mountains National Park Lake Meredith National Recreation Area Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park Padre Island National Seashore

  Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River San Antonio Missions National Historical Park

• Urban Parks

  Bachman Lake Park Bear Creek Pioneers Park Blackie Chesher Park Brackenridge Park Cullen Park Emilie & Albert Friedrich Park Emma Long Metropolitan Park Fair Park

  Forest Park Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge Gateway Park George Bush Park Hermann Park Kiest Park Memorial Park River Legacy Parks

  Skyline Park Town Lake Metropolitan Park Trinity Park W W Mcallister Park Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park White Rock Lake Park Zilker Metropolitan Park

• State Parks

  Abilene State Park Acton State Historic Site Admiral Nimitz State Historic Site Atlanta State Park Balmorhea State Park Barton Warnock Environmental Education Center Bastrop State Park Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park Big Bend Ranch State Park Big Spring State Park Blanco State Park Bonham State Park Brazos Bend State Park Buescher State Park Caddo Lake State Park Caddoan Mounds State Historic Site Caprock Canyons State Park & Trailway Casa Navarro State Historic Site Cedar Hill State Park Choke Canyon State Park Cleburne State Park Colorado Bend State Park Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site Cooper Lake State Park Copper Breaks State Park Daingerfield State Park Davis Mountains State Park Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area Devils River State Natural Area Dinosaur Valley State Park Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site Eisenhower State Park Enchanted Rock State Natural Area Estero Llano Grande State Park Fairfield Lake State Park Falcon State Park Fannin Battleground State Historic Site

  Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site Fort Griffin State Park & Historic Site Fort Lancaster State Historic Site Fort Leaton State Historic Site Fort McKavett State Historic Site Fort Parker State Park Fort Richardson State Park Historic Site & Lost Creek Reservoir State Trailway Franklin Mountains State Park Fulton Mansion State Historic Site Galveston Island State Park Garner State Park Goliad State Park Goose Island State Park Government Canyon State Natural Area Guadalupe River State Park Hill Country State Natural Area Honey Creek State Natural Area Hueco Tanks State Historic Site Huntsville State Park Inks Lake State Park Kickapoo Cavern State Park Lake Arrowhead State Park Lake Bob Sandlin State Park Lake Brownwood State Park Lake Casa Blanca International State Park Lake Colorado City State Park Lake Corpus Christi State Park Lake Livingston State Park Lake Mineral Wells State Park & Trailway Lake Somerville State Park Lake Tawakoni State Park Lake Texana State Park Lake Whitney State Park Landmark Inn State Historic Site Lipantitlan State Historic Site Lockhart State Park Longhorn Cavern State Park

  Lost Maples State Natural Area Lyndon B. Johnson State Park & Historic Site Magoffin Home State Historic Site Martin Creek Lake State Park Martin Dies, Jr. State Park Matagorda Island Wildlife Management Area McKinney Falls State Park Meridian State Park Mission Tejas State Park Monahans Sandhills State Park Monument Hill & Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites Mother Neff State Park Mustang Island State Park Palmetto State Park Palo Duro Canyon State Park Pedernales Falls State Park Port Isabel Lighthouse State Historic Site Possum Kingdom State Park Purtis Creek State Park Ray Roberts Lake State Park Rusk/Palestine State Park Sabine Pass Battleground State Park & Historic Site Sam Bell Maxey House State Historic Site San Angelo State Park San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site Sea Rim State Park Sebastopol State Historic Site Seminole Canyon State Park & Historic Site Sheldon Lake State Park & Environmental Learning Center South Llano River State Park Starr Family State Historic Site Stephen F. Austin State Park & San Felipe State Historic Site Texas State Railroad State Park Tyler State Park Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site Village Creek State Park Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site

• Parks and Conservation-Related Organizations - US

  Bat Conservation International (BCI) Big Bend Natural History Association

  Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) Escapees RV Club

• National Wildlife Refuges

  Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge Aransas National Wildlife Refuge Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge Big Boggy National Wildlife Refuge Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

  Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge Grulla National Wildlife Refuge Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge

  Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge Texas Point National Wildlife Refuge Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge

• National Trails

  El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail

• National Grasslands

  Caddo & Lyndon B. Johnson National Grasslands

• National Forests

  Angelina National Forest Davy Crockett National Forest

  Sabine National Forest Sam Houston National Forest

• Marine Sanctuaries

  Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

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Texas

Twenty-eighth state; admitted on December 29, 1845 (seceded from the Union on February 1, 1861, and was readmitted on March 30, 1870)

State capital: Austin Nickname: The Lone Star State State motto: Friendship State air force: Commemorative Air Force (formerly Con­

federate Air Force) State bird: Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) State bread: Pan de campo State cooking implement: Cast iron dutch oven State dinosaurs: Brachiosaur sauropod and pleurocoelus State dish: Chili State dog breed: Blue Lacy State epic poem: “Legend of Old Stone Ranch” State fiber and fabric: Cotton State fish: Guadalupe bass State flower: Bluebonnet (Lupinus subcarnosus, Lupinus tex­

ensis and all other varieties) State flower song: “Bluebonnets”

State footwear: Cowboy boot State flying mammal: Mexican free-tailed bat State folk dance: Square dance State fruit: Texas red grapefruit State gem: Texas blue topaz State gemstone cut: Lone star cut State grass: Sideoats Grama State health nut: Pecan State insect: Monarch butterfly State large mammal: Longhorn; small: Armadillo State maritime museum: Texas Maritime Museum State musical instrument: Guitar State native pepper: Chiltepin State native shrub: Texas purple sage State pastries: Sopaipilla; strudel State pepper: Jalapeno State petrified stone: Palmwood State plant: Prickly pear cactus State plays: The Lone Star; Texas; Beyond the Sundown; Fandangle

State precious metal: Silver
State railroad: Texas State Railroad
State reptile: Texas horned lizard
State rodeo drill team: Ghostriders
State song: “Texas, Our Texas”
State sport: Rodeo
State shell: Lightning whelk
State ship: USS Texas
State shrub: Crape myrtle
State snack: Tortilla chips and salsa
State tall ship: Elissa
State 10K: Texas Round-up 10K
State tartan: Texas Bluebonnet
State tie: Bolo tie
State tree: Pecan (Carya illinoensis)
State vegetable: Sweet onion
State vehicle: Chuck wagon

More about state symbols at:

www.texasonline.com/portal/tol/en/gov/1/4 www.senate.state.tx.us/kids/kids.htm

More about the state at:

www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/

SOURCES:

AmerBkDays-2000, p. 867
AnnivHol-2000, p. 215

STATE OFFICES:

State web site:
www.texas.gov

Office of the Governor
PO Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711
512-463-2000
fax: 512-463-1849
www.governor.state.tx.us

Secretary of State
PO Box 12697
Austin, TX 78711
512-463-5770
fax: 512-475-2761
www.sos.state.tx.us

Texas State Library 1201 Brazos Austin, TX 78701 512-463-5460 fax: 512-463-5436 www.tsl.state.tx.us

Legal Holidays:

Christmas Eve	Dec 24
Confederate Heroes Day	Jan 19
Day after Christmas	Dec 26
Day after Thanksgiving	Nov 25, 2011; Nov 23, 2012; Nov 29, 2013; Nov 28, 2014; Nov 27, 2015
Emancipation Day	Jun 19
Lyndon Baines Johnson Day	Aug 24
San Jacinto Day	Apr 21
Texas Independence Day	Mar 2

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Texas 

a state in the southern part of the United States, on the Gulf of Mexico. The country’s second largest state, after Alaska; fourth greatest in population, after California, New York, and Pennsylvania. Area, 692,000 sq km. Population, 12 million (1974), of which 80 percent is urban. The state’s capital is Austin; other important cities and economic centers include Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio.

The West Gulf Coastal Plain covers the eastern part of the state. The plain rises in the west and passes into the Edwards Plateau (elevations to 835 m) and the Llano Estacado Plain (elevations to 1,200 m). There are spurs of the Rocky Mountains (elevations to 2,665 m) in the extreme western part of the state. The climate is hot and subtropical in the southeast and continental, with hot summers and cool winters, in the west. The average temperature in January is 1°–15°C; in July, it is 25°–30°C. Annual precipitation decreases from east to west, from 1,000–1,300 mm to 200–300 mm. The largest rivers are the Red, Trinity, Brazos, Colorado, and Rio Grande. Savanna vegetation and oak and pine forests have been preserved in certain areas.

Texas is an industrial and agricultural state. It ranks first in mining output, accounting for approximately 30 percent of the country’s total, and third in agricultural output. As of 1974, the economically active population totaled 4.5 million, of which 18.5 percent were employed in the manufacturing industry, 2.5 percent in the mining industry, 4.5 percent in agriculture, 23.5 percent in commerce, and 23 percent in other fields. Texas leads the country in the production of petroleum (approximately 200 million tons), natural gas (approximately 400 billion cu m), sulfur, and helium; complex ores, uranium, and anthracite are also mined. The capacity of the state’s power plants, almost all of which are nonnuclear thermal plants, exceeded 20 gigawatts in 1973.

The main industries of Texas are oil refining and chemical production, chiefly petrochemicals, used in turn to make synthetic resins, rubber, plastics, fertilizers, acids, and alkalies. These industries are centered along the Gulf of Mexico in Houston, Free-port, Beaumont, and Corpus Christi. The aerospace industry, which includes the production of rocket engines, is centered in Fort Worth and Dallas, and nonferrous metallurgy, which relies on inexpensive electricity from thermal power plants to produce aluminum and magnesium, is based in Port Lavaca and Corpus Christi. Other industries include food processing, clothing production, metalworking, and machine building (equipment for the oil, gas, and chemical industries, radio electronics, and shipbuilding).

Land cultivation accounts for approximately two-thirds of the commodity output of agriculture. Livestock grazing prevails in the western part of the state. Texas leads all other states in the production of cotton (approximately 1.5 million tons in 1972) and rice and in the number of cattle (13 million head), sheep, and goats. Wheat, grain sorghum, maize, vegetables, alfalfa, peanuts, and fruits, including citrus fruits, are cultivated. More than 3 million hectares are irrigated, the second highest total in the country, after California. The chief seaports are Houston, Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Corpus Christi.

V. M. GOKHMAN

In the first half of the 16th century, the Spaniards became the first Europeans to make their way into the territory of Texas. In the 17th century, Texas became part of the Spanish colony of New Spain. It later became part of Mexico when the latter became independent in 1821. In the early 19th century, American planters, bringing slavery with them, began to settle in Texas; by 1835 the number of settlers approximated 30,000. In 1835 the American planters revolted against Mexican rule (Texas Revolution), and although in 1836 they declared Texas an independent republic, the territory was under the de facto control of the United States. In 1845 the United States annexed Texas as a slaveholding state. The annexation of Texas and the occupation of the state by American troops directly preceded the Mexican War (1846–48), which forced Mexico to acknowledge the loss of Texas. The native population was driven from the best land, which was then seized by the planters. During the Civil War, Texas joined the Confederacy. In the 1920’s, activities of the Ku Klux Klan intensified in Texas. Racial discrimination remains a characteristic feature of life in the state. In defiance of a 1954 decision of the US Supreme Court, separate schooling for white and black children has been retained. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Texas in 1963.