Texas Trivia & Tidbits - Page 13

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

Gail Borden, an early pioneer settler in Texas, made the first topographical map of Texas, and in 1838 surveyed and laid out the site of Galveston. He also developed a method to make condensed milk in 1853. With financial backing from a wholesale grocer, he later founded the New York Condensed Milk Co., which was renamed Borden Inc.

first appeared: 2/29/2004

Miriam A. Ferguson would have become America’s first elected woman governor in 1925 if Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming hadn’t been inaugurated 16 days earlier.

first appeared: 2/29/2004

The state fish, Guadalupe bass, is adapted to small streams where they are considered an important sport fish. Specimens of more than 3.5 pounds have been landed, but most are much smaller. They—like largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass—are actually members of the sunfish family.

first appeared: 2/22/2004

The state pepper of Texas is the jalapeño.

first appeared: 2/22/2004

The Annie Riggs Memorial Museum in Fort Stockton (pop. 7,846) is an early 1900s hotel (once run by a lady named Annie Riggs) whose artifacts include a cast iron bed ordered from Sears & Roebuck in 1900 for $6.75, freight included.

first appeared: 2/15/2004

San Antonio’s “Mission San Antonio de Valero,” known better as The Alamo, was built by the Spanish in 1718 and now is part of the city’s downtown landscape. The adobe and stone-walled fortress is smaller than most would imagine and is open to the public as a museum maintained by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

first appeared: 2/15/2004

Sam Houston was born in Virginia and served as governor of Tennessee before coming to Texas in 1832. He had virtually no formal schooling as a youngster, and joined the U.S. Army as a private in 1813. In 1835, he was appointed major general of the Texas Army, and defeated Mexican forces under Santa Anna a year later at the Battle of San Jacinto.

first appeared: 2/8/2004

Brewster (pop. 8,866) is the largest county in Texas—covering 6,193 square miles of territory, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In our Dec. 28–Jan. 3 edition, we erroneously named Ellis as the largest county. Thanks to our Texas readers for informing us of this error.

first appeared: 2/8/2004

For all its renown as a state of cattle and oil, Texas produced 5.5 million pounds of wool in 2002, more than any other state.

first appeared: 2/1/2004

Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state. It is a sprawling maze of bayous covering 32,000 acres of cypress swamp containing 71 species of fish.

first appeared: 2/1/2004

Texas longhorn cattle, which spawned the American cowboy, is a range-rugged breed with horns that can span 9 feet. It evolved from Mexican stock and multiplied by the millions in the mid-1800s. After the Civil War, resourceful Texans hired youths (cowboys) to round up the wild cattle and drive them to railheads in Abilene and Dodge City, Kan., for shipment east to feed a beef-hungry nation. This era lasted only about 20 years.

first appeared: 1/25/2004

The “Lone Star” flag was adopted in 1839 as the official flag of the Republic of Texas—but as a territory, country and state, Texas has been under the flags of Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, Confederate States of America and the United States of America.

first appeared: 1/18/2004

The state’s tidewater coastline stretches for 624 miles along the Gulf of Mexico, and contains more than 600 historic shipwrecks.

first appeared: 1/18/2004

The only place in the world where Dr Pepper is made according to the original formula is in Dublin, Texas (pop. 3,754), which also is home to the oldest Dr Pepper bottling plant (1891).

first appeared: 1/11/2004

Rainfall in the state ranges from 58.3 inches in places along the Gulf Coast to a dusty 8.8 inches at El Paso in western Texas.

first appeared: 1/4/2004

Some 38,000 rose bushes grow at the 14-acre Municipal Rose Garden, one of the world’s largest, in Tyler. Opened in 1952, it is both a display garden and a trial garden for the All-America Rose Society.

first appeared: 1/4/2004

The Texas coastline covers 367 miles, compared to 40 miles for “The Ocean State” of Rhode Island.

first appeared: 12/28/2003

Palo Duro State Park in the panhandle is known as the Grand Canyon of Texas at 120 miles long and more than 800 feet deep in places. It was formed by thousands of years of water erosion by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, and is known for its scenic “painted” stone formations.

first appeared: 12/28/2003

Two heroes in the state’s fight for independence, Davy Crockett and Sam Houston, both hailed from Tennessee, where Houston was elected governor in 1827.

first appeared: 12/21/2003

The Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River designation protects the river’s pristine character for 196 miles in southwest Texas. Much of the river courses through Big Bend National Park, one of the largest (80,000 acres) and least visited of America’s national parks. Elevations range from 2,000 feet to more than 8,000 feet in the Chisos Mountains. The park also includes vast desert areas and massive canyons.

first appeared: 12/21/2003

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