Texas Trivia & Tidbits - Page 7

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

You’re in good company when you spend time in the 1877 limestone jailhouse in Albany (pop. 1,921), which now houses the Old Jail Art Center and features works by Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso and Alexander Calder. The jail, closed in 1929, was used as a private studio and stood vacant before reopening as an art museum in 1980 by the Old Jail Foundation.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

Clark Gardens Botanical Park, located between Weatherford (pop. 19,000) and Mineral Wells (pop. 16,946), began as Max and Billie Clark’s private garden in 1972. Twenty-seven years later, the Clarks established the Max and Billie Clark Foundation, donating their gardens to the organization. The park opened to the public in 2000, and today, visitors can explore more than 50 different gardens and tour the History House.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

—The nation’s biggest rattlesnake roundup has been a part of Sweetwater (pop. 11,415) history since 1958. The annual festival, which began as a way to help ranchers rid their land of the poisonous snakes, features snake-milking and snake-handling displays, the Snake Review Parade, a rattlesnake meat cookoff and the Miss Snake Charmer queen contest.

first appeared: 10/8/2006

El Paso kicks up its fancy heels as the state’s boot-making capital because of its many boot companies, including Lucchese, Rocketbuster and J.B. Hill. Tony Lama started making boots in the town in 1911. Custom boots today aren’t drab brown cowhides, but are stitched with fanciful designs and in bold colors from exotic hides such as alligator and ostrich.

first appeared: 9/24/2006

Western swing music fans sashay to Turkey (pop. 494) to pay homage to the town's favorite son, Bob Wills (1905-1975), who grew up on a nearby farm. The town is home to a Bob Wills monument and museum, filled with fiddles, boots, hats, recordings and other memorabilia of the "King of Western Swing.”

first appeared: 9/10/2006

Volunteers are helping restore the Lake Fannin Organizational Camp, which was built between 1936 and 1938 by the Rural Resettlement Administration. The camp of native timber and stone occupies 95 acres and is located near Bonham (pop. 9,990) and Honey Grove (pop. 1,746).

first appeared: 9/10/2006

The Hangar Hotel at the Gillespie County Airport in Fredericksburg (pop. 8,911) is designed to resemble a World War II-era airplane hangar. Guest rooms are furnished with green Army-style blankets and reproduction 1940s rotary telephones. The hotel also has a retro Airport Diner, search light, water tower and a perfect view of the runway for airplane buffs.

first appeared: 8/27/2006

The 19th-century tall ship Elissa is the centerpiece of the Texas Seaport Museum in Galveston (pop. 57,247). The square-rigged ship was rescued from the scrap yard in 1974 and meticulously restored. Visitors can explore the decks of the floating National Historic Landmark and search for ancestors on a computer database of more than 130,000 immigrants who entered the United States through Galveston, known as "The Ellis Island of the West."

first appeared: 8/27/2006

At last count, 24 mammoths have been unearthed at the Waco Mammoth Site where the Brazos and Bosque rivers meet near Waco. This is the largest known herd that died from a single cause. Scientists believe the mammoths were caught in a thunderstorm while grazing in a gully 28,000 years ago and perished when a riverbank gave way.

first appeared: 8/13/2006

From a napkin drawing to the finished product, the American IronHorse Motorcycle Co. designs and builds custom motorcycles in its 224,000-square-foot factory in Fort Worth. The company was founded in 1995 by Bill Rucker and Tim Edmondson.

first appeared: 8/13/2006

The Plaza Theatre, which in its 1930s and '40s heyday was known as "the Showcase of the Southwest," reopened in March in El Paso. Once slated for demolition to make way for a parking lot, the ornate 2,100-seat theater has undergone a $38 million restoration.

first appeared: 7/30/2006

Spamarama, Austin's annual potted pork festival, celebrated its 28th anniversary this year with a cookoff, a Spamalympics, Spam call (think hog call) and other events glorifying the canned luncheon meat. The festival was started in 1978 by David Arnsberger and Dick Terry, who thought chili cookoffs were not challenging enough.

first appeared: 7/30/2006

In March, Austin homemaker Anna Ginsberg won a delectable $1 million, plus $10,000 worth of General Electric kitchen appliances, for her recipe for baked chicken and spinach stuffing in the 2006 Pillsbury Bake-Off.

first appeared: 7/16/2006

Built in 1887, the bar at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio is a replica of London's House of Lords Pub. In the early 1900s, temperance crusader Carry Nation left her mark on the cherry bar with an ax.

first appeared: 7/2/2006

During the Depression, when Nocona Leather Goods Co. in Nocona (pop. 3,198) fell on hard times and couldn't sell billfolds and purses, the company began making baseball gloves. Home run! Seventy-five years later, the Nokona ball glove is still catching praise.

first appeared: 7/2/2006

The Frank Buck Zoo in Gainesville (pop. 15,538) is named for animal collector and native son Frank Buck (1884-1950). Buck spent most of his life capturing exotic species for zoos and circuses, earning him the nickname "Bring 'em Back Alive."

first appeared: 6/25/2006

The underground Caverns of Sonora are known for their helictites—unusual mineral formations that grow in every direction, often creating fishtail-like shapes. The caverns' most famous helictite actually is two "fishtails" that resemble a butterfly's wings. The caverns, located near the town of Sonora (pop. 2,924), were discovered in the early 1900s, and were first explored professionally some 50 years later.

first appeared: 6/4/2006

One of the state's top ice cream producers, Blue Bell Creameries, opened in 1907 as the Brenham Creamery Co., producing butter from its location in an abandoned cotton gin. The company is based in Brenham (pop. 13,507) and began making ice cream in 1911, packing up to 2 gallons per day in a large wooden tub filled with ice, and delivering it by horse and wagon.

first appeared: 6/4/2006

The Globe of the Great Southwest, an authentic replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theater from 1598 in London, is located at Odessa College in Odessa. The idea originated in local teacher Marjorie Morris' English class in 1948 and became a reality some 20 years later. The Globe stands next to a replica of Anne Hathaway's Cottage, the home of Shakespeare's wife in Shottery, England.

first appeared: 5/21/2006

Casey Pernsteiner is earning a name for herself in the competitive world of Rubik's Cube puzzles. The Gonzales (pop. 7,202) native is just 14 years old, but was able to solve the colorful "block" puzzle in an average of 20 to 22 seconds at a competition earlier this year in San Francisco. She made it to the finals of the world-record-setting event.

first appeared: 5/14/2006

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