Texas Trivia & Tidbits - Page 10

Looking for Texas trivia? Try our list Texas little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Fair Play in Panola County was first settled by John Allison, who ran a general store, boardinghouse and blacksmith shop. The town’s unusual name is said to have come from a traveler who was grateful for the fair rates Allison charged him.

first appeared: 5/8/2005

A 121.5-pound blue catfish named Splash is helping her home—the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens (pop. 11,297)—raise money for a new education building. Last December, the center auctioned off two chicken bones (oven dried and painted gold) that were left over from Splash’s meals. Splash was caught in Lake Texoma in January 2004.

first appeared: 5/8/2005

Completed in April 2000, the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail stretches through 43 counties along the state’s coastline and features 308 wildlife-viewing sites. Seventy-five percent of the state’s 600 bird species, including buntings, orioles, warblers and hummingbirds, have been seen near the coast.

first appeared: 4/24/2005

A hippopotamus made news in Hutto (pop. 1,250) in 1915, when it escaped from a traveling circus and spent several days in a nearby creek before it was captured. Local school athletic teams subsequently became known as the Hippos. Today, dozens of concrete hippos can be found around the city, celebrating Hutto’s official designation in 2003 as "The Hippo Capital of Texas."

first appeared: 4/10/2005

When Southern Pacific Railroad upholsterer John Milkovisch retired, he paved the lawn of his Houston home with concrete decorated with marbles, rocks and pieces of metal. He then moved on to his house, eventually covering it with some 50,000 flattened beer cans. Milkovisch died in 1988, but the house remains on view at 222 Malone St.

first appeared: 3/27/2005

Born in Mineola (pop. 4,550), the daughter of Gov. James Stephen Hogg, Ima Hogg (1882-1975) became one of the state’s notable philanthropists, establishing the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health among many other organizations.

first appeared: 3/27/2005

Janis Joplin, considered one of the nation’s most talented blues and rock artists, was born Jan. 19, 1943, in Port Arthur (pop. 57,755). Her performance with the band Big Brother and the Holding Company at the 1967 Monterey (Calif.) Pop Festival thrust her into the music world’s spotlight. Her last album, Pearl, was released after she died in Los Angeles on Oct. 4, 1970.

first appeared: 3/13/2005

Within a 10-mile radius of Electra (pop. 3,168), 5,000 pump jacks bring oil out of the ground. The town was officially named "the Pump Jack Capital of Texas" in 2001. Oil became a major economic force in the community on April Fool’s Day 1911, when the Clayco No. 1 well starting gushing.

first appeared: 2/27/2005

The oldest women’s literary club in the state, the Bronte Club, was founded by schoolteacher Viola Case in 1855 in Victoria (pop. 60,603). The club’s book collection later became the Bronte Library and then the Victoria Public Library.

first appeared: 2/27/2005

When Austin barber Bill Black noticed in the 1970s that houseplants near his barber’s chair were growing well, he investigated. He determined that the plants were being regularly dusted with hair clippings and that hair is 18 percent nitrogen, a major component of fertilizer. He soon concocted FertHairLizer, a plant food made from soil and hair.

first appeared: 2/13/2005

Organizers of the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships held in Austin invite "wicked and witty word butchers who wish to wrangle wit in the worst way" to compete each April for the best (or worst) word plays.

first appeared: 2/13/2005

The tongue-in-cheek motto at Beauty and the Book, a combination beauty salon and bookstore in Jefferson (pop. 2,024), is "the higher the hair, the closer to God." In 2000, storeowner and stylist Kathy Patrick launched the Pulpwood Queens of East Texas, a book club whose members wear tiaras and leopard print clothing. The Queens now have more than 30 chapters from South Carolina to California.

first appeared: 1/30/2005

Soldiers during the Civil War used bat guano from Longhorn Cavern near Burnet (pop. 4,735) to manufacture gunpowder in the limestone cave’s main room. Located in a ridge that rises from the valley of the Colorado River, the cave was used as a dance hall and nightclub in the 1920s. Civilian Conservation Corps workers dug out its passageways and installed electric lights in the 1930s, and today the cave is part of a 646-acre state park.

first appeared: 1/16/2005

When Babe Didrickson Zaharias (1914-1956) was asked how she drove a golf ball 250 yards, it's reported that she replied: "You've got to loosen your girdle and let it rip." Born in Port Arthur (pop. 57,755), Zaharias won gold medals in the javelin and hurdles events at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, became a championship golfer and helped found the LPGA in 1948.

first appeared: 1/2/2005

A tribute to barbed wire, which forever changed the Western cattle industry after its invention in 1874, stands in McLean (pop. 830) where two solid balls of the fencing material, each weighing more than 370 pounds, sit on top of 125-year-old limestone fence posts. In 1992, collectors Frank and Violet Smith of Keller (pop. 27,345) donated the monument to the Devil’s Rope Museum, which is dedicated to the history of barbed wire.

first appeared: 12/19/2004

The small community of Yard, northwest of Palestine (pop. 17,598), reportedly received its name in the early 1900s when the owner of its first store submitted a list of names to the post office department. The list mistakenly included a customer’s order for a yard of cloth.

first appeared: 12/5/2004

Born in Galveston (pop. 57,247), boxer John Arthur "Jack" Johnson (1878-1946) became the first African-American to hold the world heavyweight title when he defeated Tommy Burns in 1908 in Sydney, Australia. He retained the title until 1915.

first appeared: 11/21/2004

State lawmakers declared Lockhart (pop. 11,615) "The Barbecue Capital of Texas" in 1999, thanks to the city’s four barbecue restaurants, which report that 5,000 people visit them every week. One of the four, Black’s Barbecue, was established in 1932 and claims to be the state’s oldest barbecue restaurant owned and operated continuously by the same family.

first appeared: 11/7/2004

Research at the Lunar Laser Ranging Station at the McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis (pop. 1,050) shows that the distance between the center of the Earth and the center of the moon—an average of 239,000 miles—is increasing by 1.5 inches per year. Since 1969, scientists have been measuring this distance by shooting laser pulses at mirrored targets first placed on the moon by Apollo 11 astronauts.

first appeared: 10/24/2004

Coffins in the shape of a leopard, chicken, Mercedes Benz car and even a lobster can be found at the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston. Designed to represent the character traits or occupation of the departed, the brightly colored wooden coffins come from Ghana, where they are part of the African nation’s funeral traditions.

first appeared: 10/10/2004

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