Texas Trivia & Tidbits - Page 3

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

—William Maurice Ewing, a geophysicist who invented and perfected instruments for exploring the ocean floor, was born in 1906 in Lockney (pop. 2,056). Ewing helped found Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where he served as its first director.

first appeared: 9/7/2008

Jackie Bibby, the “Texas Snake Man,” broke his own record last November by spending about 45 minutes in a bathtub with 87 rattlesnakes in Dublin (pop. 3,754). Bibby, of Fort Worth, has other world snake records, including holding 11 rattlesnakes by their tails in his mouth, and sacking 10 rattlesnakes in 17 seconds at the National Rattlesnake Sacking Championship in Taylor (pop. 13,575).

first appeared: 9/7/2008

—Although headquartered in Fort Worth, Justin Boot Co. charts its humble beginnings in Spanish Fort, where in 1879, H.J. Justin started a boot-repair business in his home. He later started to make boots for cowboys who passed through Spanish Fort while driving cattle on the Chisholm Trail.

first appeared: 8/24/2008

Billy Bass, the battery-powered crooning fish, doesn’t have to be a keeper. The Flying Fish Restaurants, headquartered in Dallas, are official adoption centers for Billy. Hundreds of the bass have been happily abandoned for free catfish baskets and mounted on the restaurants’ walls.

first appeared: 8/24/2008

—The Fort Griffin Fandangle in Albany (pop. 1,921) is the oldest outdoor musical in the state. Created by the late Robert Nail in 1938, the Fandangle has grown to a cast of several hundred and celebrates the founding of Fort Griffin and the settling of Albany. It is performed during the last two full weekends of June.

first appeared: 8/10/2008

Hundreds of dinosaur tracks are preserved in the bed of the Paluxy River in Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose (pop. 2,122). About 110 million years ago, dinosaurs left footprints along the river, where they are now embedded in limestone and visible when the water level is low.

first appeared: 8/10/2008

—Fans across the nation are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Mason Williams’ “Classical Gas,” one of the most popular guitar instrumentals of all time. Williams, who wrote the 1968 hit while a television comedy writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, was born in Abilene in 1938.

first appeared: 7/27/2008

Jack Valenti, who as president of the Motion Picture Association of America helped devise the G to X movie-rating system, was born in Houston. He died at age 85 in April 2007.

first appeared: 7/27/2008

—Marfa (pop. 2,121) should get an Oscar for best movie setting. Both No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, which each earned eight Academy Award nominations this year, were filmed in Marfa. Residents are used to being in the limelight: The 1956 movie Giant, starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, also was filmed in the town.

first appeared: 7/13/2008

The Masked Rider, the football mascot at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, began as a prank in 1936 when an unknown student or students circled the football field on horseback at home football games. The Masked Rider became an official mascot in 1954.

first appeared: 7/13/2008

—The XIT Museum in Dalhart (pop. 7,237) tells the story of the famous XIT Ranch, which at 3 million acres once was the world’s largest fenced ranch. The ranch was started in 1885 by the Capitol Syndicate, which built the state Capitol in Austin in exchange for the land.

first appeared: 6/29/2008

Texas is last in the nation in the percentage of drivers who personalize their license plates. Less than 1 percent of the state’s drivers purchase vanity plates.

first appeared: 6/29/2008

—U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is the first mother of school-aged children to serve in that position. She was born in 1957 in Michigan, and grew up in Houston where she attended public schools.

first appeared: 6/15/2008

In 2007, Colt Knost of Pilot Point (pop. 3,538) became the second golfer to win both the U.S. Amateur Public Links and the U.S. Amateur championship titles in the same year. A graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Knost was selected as Conference USA’s Golfer of the Year and made the cut in the PGA Tour’s EDS Byron Nelson Championship.

first appeared: 6/15/2008

—The Durst-Taylor House is Nacogdoches’ (pop. 29,914) second oldest structure still standing on its original site. Built in the 1830s, the wood-frame home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been restored to reflect the 1840 to 1860 period. The historic landmark also has a blacksmith shop, smokehouse and gardens on the property.

first appeared: 6/1/2008

The American Quarter Horse Association registered its 5 millionth horse in January. Registration number 5,000,000 is being held for Shelly Nielsen of Alberta, Canada, who paid $8,750 in an online auction for the naming rights. The association, the world’s largest horse-breed registry, is based in Amarillo.

first appeared: 6/1/2008

––Texas A&M’s canine mascot holds the honorary rank of general in the College Station school’s Corps of Cadets. Named Reveille VII, the collie is the seventh mascot in a tradition that began in 1931 when a carload of cadets hit a black-and-white dog. They brought the injured pup back to campus and cared for it in their dormitory. The dog answered the next morning’s bugle call with loud yelps, which earned it the name Reveille.

first appeared: 5/18/2008

Guests at the Comfort Inn Alamo/Riverwalk in San Antonio don’t have to book a room for life. In 2004, the hotel opened in the former 1878 Bexar County Jail. Some of the hotel’s windows still have bars on them.

first appeared: 5/18/2008

—The state’s “Safe Cupcake Amendment” protects the right of parents to bring the frosted petite treats to school on their children’s birthdays. Lawmakers adopted the amendment in 2005 after the Texas Department of Agriculture banned junk food in public schools. Parents lobbied to protect the cupcake, and lawmakers, in a bipartisan gesture, agreed.

first appeared: 5/4/2008

San Antonio’s SeaWorld offers thrill-seekers a new ride experience: a combination water ride and roller coaster, the first of its kind in the United States. Opened last year, Journey to Atlantis includes 16-seat boats that climb 100 feet, rotate for a panoramic view of the park and the city, then propel backward down a slope and plunge into water.

first appeared: 5/4/2008

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