Texas Facts

Lightning Whelk - Texas state sea shell

Don in Houston sends these delightful little factoids. Thanks Don.

Nobody asked for them, but here are some little known Texas facts. I know ya'll just can't wait to read them!

• 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 full time 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.

• The State shell is Lightning Whelk.

• 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.

This appears to be the source: Texas Facts and Trivia.