Thread: Texas Facts

Little Known Texas Facts!

here are some little known facts for the many Texans we have here.

Beaumont to El Paso: 742 miles
Beaumont to Chicago: 770 miles
World's first rodeo was in Pecos... July 4, 1883.

The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America
built over water.

The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the
first fulltime coach for Rice University, Houston.

Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in
North America.

Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America's only
remaining flock of whooping cranes.

Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.

The worst natural disaster in U.S. history was in 1900 caused by a
hurricane in which over 8000 lives were lost on Galveston Island.

The first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was "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 U.S. rainfall record of 43" in
24 hours in and around Alvin in July 1979.

Texas is the only state to enter the U.S. by TREATY, instead of by
annexation. (This allows the Texas flag to fly at the same height
as the US flag.)

A Live Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old.

Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.

Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period after
Dr in Dr Pepper.

Texas has had six capital cities ...
1. Washington-on-the-Brazos
2. Harrisburg
3. Galveston
4. Velasco
5. West Columbia
6. Austin

The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the U.S. which is
taller than the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. (by 7 feet).

The name Texas comes from the Hasini Indian word "tejas" meaning
friends. Tejas is not Mexican for Texas.

The State animal is the Armadillo. *

The first domed stadium in the U.S. was the Astrodome in Houston.

*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. Well... I thought it
was interesting anyway!

(Source Unknown)

Did you know that the Armadillo is the only other animal that can carry the leprosy bacilli?

The Armadillo female can delay her pregnancy for up to 3 years. Imagine if human could do that.

I did a school report on them when I went to high school in Texas.