Texas

For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation).

Texas
State
Country	United States
Before statehood	Republic of Texas
Admitted to the Union	December 29, 1845 (28th)
Capital	Austin
Largest city	Houston
Government
• Governor	Rick Perry (R)
• Upper house	{{{Upperhouse}}}
• Lower house	{{{Lowerhouse}}}
U.S. senators	Kay Bailey Hutchison (R), John Cornyn (R)
Population
• Total	20,851,820
• Density	79.6/sq mi (30.75/km2)
Language
• Official language	English (de facto) See also languages of Texas
Traditional abbreviation	Tex.
Latitude	25°50'N to 36°30'N
Longitude	93°31'W to 106°38'W

Texas is a state located in the Southern and Southwestern regions of the United States of America. With an area of 268,581 square miles (695,622 km²) and a population of 23.5 million in 254 counties, the state is second-largest in both area and population—behind Alaska and California, respectively. About half the state's population resides in either the Dallas–Fort Worth or Houston metropolitan areas.

The state's name derives from a word in the Caddoan language of the Hasinai, táyshaʔ, "Friend". Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836 and existed as the independent Republic of Texas for nearly a decade. In 1845, it joined the United States as the 28th state.

Texas is internationally known for its energy and aeronautics industries, and for its use of ship channel at the Port of Houston—the largest in the U.S. in international commerce and the sixth-largest port in the world. The state is home to numerous Fortune 500 companies located in major metropolitan areas. The Texas Medical Center contains the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions.

History

Main article: History of Texas

Texas boasts that "Six Flags" have flown over its soil: the Fleur-de-lis of France, the national flags of Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the United States of America.

Native American tribes who once lived inside the boundaries of present-day Texas include Apache, Atakapan, Bidai, Caddo, Comanche, Cherokee, Kiowa, Tonkawa, Wichita, Huaco and the Karankawa of Galveston. Currently, there are three federally recognized Native American tribes which reside in Texas: the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, and the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo of Texas.

Stephen F. Austin

On November 6, 1528, shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European in Texas. Before 1821, Texas was part of the Spanish dominions of New Spain. Moses Austin bought 200,000 acres (800 km²) of land of his choice. In 1821, Texas became part of the newly independent Republic of Mexico and, in 1824, became the northern section of Coahuila y Tejas. On January 3, 1823, Stephen F. Austin began a colony of 300 American families along the Brazos River. This group became known as the "Old Three Hundred." The "Conventions" of 1832 and 1833 responded to rising unrest at the policies of the ruling Mexican government, which included the end of duty free imports from the United States and the potential end to the special allowance for slavery in the state. Slavery had been abolished in Mexico with the independence.

In 1835, Antonio López de Santa Anna, President of Mexico, proclaimed a unified constitution for all Mexican territories, including Texas. The new Constitution ended the republic and the federation, imposed a central style of government with power concentrated in the President, and turned states into provinces with governors appointed from Mexico City. Some states around Mexico rebelled against this imposition, including Chihuahua, Zacatecas and Yucatan. Texans were also irritated by other policies including the forcible disarmament of Texan settlers, and the expulsion of immigrants and legal land owners originally from the United States. The example of the Centralista forces' suppression of dissidents in Zacatecas also inspired fear of the Mexican government.

Republic of Texas. The present-day outlines of the U.S. states are superimposed on the boundaries of 1836–1845

On March 2, 1836, the Convention of 1836 signed a Declaration of Independence, declaring Texas an independent nation. On April 21, 1836, the Texans won their independence when they defeated the Mexican forces of Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. Santa Anna was captured and signed the Treaties of Velasco, which gave Texas firm boundaries; Mexico repudiated the treaties, considered Texas a breakaway province, and vowed to reconquer it. Later in 1836, the Texans adopted a constitution that formally legalized slavery in Texas. The Republic of Texas included the area of the present state of Texas, and additional unoccupied territory to the west and northwest.

Texans wanted annexation to the U.S. Texas was fast-growing but still poor, and had great difficulty maintaining self-defense. Events such as the Dawson Massacre and two recaptures of Béxar in Texas of 1842 helped add momentum to the desire for statehood. . However, American politics intruded; strong Northern opposition to adding another slave state blocked annexation until the election of 1844 was won on a pro-annexation platform by James K. Polk. On December 29, 1845, Texas was admitted to the U.S. as a constituent state of the Union. The Mexican–American War followed, with decisive American victories. Soon after, Texas grew rapidly as migrants poured into the cotton lands.

During the American Civil War, the state legislature authorized secession from the U.S. on February 1, 1861, and Texas was accepted as a state by the provisional government of the Confederate States of America on March 1, 1861. Partly due to its distance from the front lines of the war, a major role for Texas was to supply hardy soldiers for Confederate forces (veterans of the Mexican–American War), especially in cavalry. Although Texan regiments fought in every major battle throughout the war,

, Texas was largely considered a "supply state" for the Confederate forces until mid-1863, when the Union capture of the Mississippi River made large movements of men or cattle impossible. The last battle of the Civil War was fought in Texas, at Palmito Ranch, on May 12, 1865, well after Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House, Va.

Texas descended into near-anarchy during the two months between the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia and the assumption of authority by Union General Gordon Granger, as Confederate forces demobilized or disbanded and government property passed into private hands through distribution or plunder. Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865 in Galveston by General Gordon Granger; nearly 1-1/2 years after the original announcement of January 1, 1863. On March 30, 1870, although Texas did not meet all the requirements, the United States Congress readmitted Texas into the Union.

The first major oil well in Texas was drilled at Spindletop, a little hill south of Beaumont, on the morning of January 10, 1901. Other oil fields were later discovered nearby in East Texas, in West Texas, and under the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting “Oil Boom” permanently transformed the economy of Texas. Oil production eventually averaged three million barrels of oil per day at its peak in 1972. The economy, which had experienced significant recovery since the Civil War, was dealt a double blow by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.

From 1950 through the 1960s, Texas modernized and dramatically expanded its system of higher education. Under the leadership of Governor John B. Connally, the state produced a long-range plan for higher education, a more rational distribution of resources, and a central state apparatus designed to manage state institutions more efficiently. Because of these changes, Texas universities received federal funds for research and development during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Texas

El Capitan

The geography of Texas spans a wide range of features and timelines. Texas is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico. It is in the south-central part of the United States of America. It is considered to form part of the U.S. South and also part of the U.S. Southwest.

The Rio Grande, Red River and Sabine River all provide natural state lines where Texas borders Oklahoma on the north, Louisiana and Arkansas on the east, and New Mexico and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south.

By residents, the state is generally divided into North Texas, East Texas, Central Texas, South Texas, and West Texas, but according to the Texas Almanac, Texas has four major physical regions: Gulf Coastal Plains, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, and The Basin and Range Province. This is the difference between human geography and physical geography.

Some regions of Texas are associated with the South more than the Southwest (primarily East Texas and North Texas), while other regions share more similarities with the Southwest than the South (primarily West Texas and South Texas). The Texas Panhandle and South Plains regions don't fit either category; they seem to have more in common with parts of the Midwestern United States. The size of Texas prohibits easy categorization of the entire state wholly in any recognized region of the United States; geographic, economic, and even cultural diversity between regions of the state preclude treating Texas as a region in its own right.

See also: Texas Irrigation Canals

Geology

Main article: Geology of Texas

Shaded Relief Map of the Llano Estacado.

Texas is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico. It is mostly sedimentary rocks, with east Texas underlain by a Cretaceous and younger sequence of sediments, the trace of ancient shorelines east and south until the active continental margin of the Gulf of Mexico is met. This sequence is built atop the subsided crest of the Appalachian Mountains—Ouachita Mountains—Marathon Mountains zone of Pennsylvanian continental collision, which collapsed when rifting in Jurassic time opened the Gulf of Mexico. West from this orogenic crest, which is buried beneath the Dallas—Waco—Austin—San Antonio trend, the sediments are Permian and Triassic in age. Oil is found in the Cretaceous sediments in the east, the Permian sediments in the west, and along the Gulf coast and out on the Texas continental shelf. A few exposures of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks are found in the central and western parts of the state, and Oligocene volcanic rocks are found in far west Texas, in the Big Bend area. A blanket of Miocene sediments known as the Ogallala formation in the western high plains region is an important aquifer. Texas has no active or dormant volcanoes and few earthquakes, being situated far from an active plate tectonic boundary. (The Big Bend area is the most seismically active; however, the area is sparsely populated and suffers minimal damages and injuries, and no known fatalities have been attributed to a Texas earthquake.)

Climate

The large size of the state of Texas and its location at the intersection of several climate zones gives the state highly variable weather. In general, though, there are three main climatic zones: the humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa) of the eastern half of Texas, the temperate semi-arid (Koppen BSk) steppe climate of the northwestern part, including the Panhandle, and the subtropical steppe climate (nearly an arid desert climate, Koppen BSh) of the southern parts of West Texas, particularly around El Paso.

The Panhandle of the state is cooler in the winter than North Texas or the Gulf Coast. Different regions of Texas experience vastly different precipitation patterns: El Paso averages as little as 7.8 inches of rain per year while the average annual precipitation is 59 inches in Orange, Texas. Moderate snowfall often falls in the winter months in the north. Maximum temperatures in the summer months average from the 80s °F in the mountains of West Texas and on Galveston Island to around 100 °F in the Rio Grande Valley. Nighttime summer temperatures range from the upper 50s °F in the West Texas mountains to 80 °F in Galveston.

Thunderstorms are more common in the eastern and northern part of the state, although they are far from rare elsewhere in the state. Tornadoes are common in Texas, with the state averaging around 139 a year, more than any other state. Tornadoes are most frequent in the northern half of the state from April-July, although tornadoes can happen anywhere in the state, except perhaps for the Big Bend area.

See also: Catastrophic Texas Hurricanes since 1900

Government and politics

Main article: Government of Texas

Government

Texas State Capitol

Republican Rick Perry has served as Governor of Texas since December 2000, when George W. Bush vacated the office to assume the Presidency. Two Republicans represent Texas in the U.S. Senate: Kay Bailey Hutchison (since 1993) and John Cornyn (since 2002). Texas has 32 representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives: 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats.

The Texas Constitution, adopted in 1876, is the second oldest state constitution still in effect. As with many state constitutions, it explicitly provides for the separation of powers and incorporates its bill of rights directly into the text of the constitution (as Article I). The bill of rights is considerably lengthier and more detailed than the federal Bill of Rights, and includes some provisions unique to Texas. Texas is one of only 3 states that is allowed by law to fly its flag at the same height as the U.S. Flag. Virginia and Hawaii are two of the others.

The executive branch consists of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Land Commissioner, Attorney General, Agriculture Commissioner, the three-member Texas Railroad Commission, the State Board of Education, and the Secretary of State. Unlike many other states, all of these positions are elected by the populace, with the exception of the Secretary of State (who is appointed by the Governor). Thus, it is possible for the Governor and Lieutenant Governor could be of different political parties. The comptroller decides if expected state income is sufficient to cover the proposed state budget. Except for the secretary of state—who is appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate—each of these officials is elected (the three Railroad Commission members are voted at-large; the State Board of Education members are voted in single-member districts). There are also many state agencies and numerous boards and commissions. Partly because of many elected officials, the governor's powers are quite limited in comparison to other state governors or the U.S. President. In popular lore and belief the lieutenant governor, who heads the Senate and appoints its committees, has more power than the governor. The governor commands the state militia and can veto bills passed by the Legislature and call special sessions of the Legislature (this power is exclusive to the governor and can be exercised as often as desired). The governor also appoints members of various executive boards and fills judicial vacancies between elections. In reality, the Speaker of the House is the most powerful member of the state government.

The Legislature of Texas, like the legislature of every other state except Nebraska, is bicameral (that is, it has two chambers). The House of Representatives has 150 members, while the Senate has 31. The speaker of the house, currently Tom Craddick (R-Midland) leads the House, and the lieutenant governor (currently Republican David Dewhurst) leads the state Senate. The Legislature meets in regular session only once every two years. The Legislature cannot call itself into special session; only the governor may call a special session, and may call as many sessions as often as desired.

The judicial system of Texas has a reputation as one of the most complex in the United States, with many layers and many overlapping jurisdictions. Texas has two courts of last resort: the Texas Supreme Court, which hears civil cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Except in the case of some municipal benches, partisan elections choose all of the judges at all levels of the judiciary; the governor fills vacancies by appointment. link title

Law

The justice system in Texas has a reputation for strict sentencing. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, of the 21 counties in the United States where more than a fifth of the residents are prison inmates, 10 are in Texas. As mentioned above, Texas has 254 counties which affects the significance of this statistic.

Texas leads the nation in executions by far, with 381 executions from 1976 to 2006. The second-highest ranking state is Virginia, with 94. Only capital murder (which is murder with an aggravating circumstance such as theft or sexual assault of the person murdered, murder of an elderly person or child, or murder in the commission of a felony)[2] is eligible for the death penalty. Prior to 2005, the alternate sentence was life with the possibility of parole after 40 calendar years; a 2005 law change changed the alternate sentence to life without parole.

A 2002 Houston Chronicle poll of Texans found that when asked "Do you support the death penalty?", 69.1 percent responded that they did, 21.9 percent did not support, and 9.1% were not sure or gave no answer.

Well-known for their role in the history of Texas law enforcement, the Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Highway Patrol continue today to provide special law enforcement services to the state.

Further information: [[:Capital punishment in Texas]]

See also: List of military installations in Texas

Politics

Main article: Politics of Texas

File:Rick perry.jpg

Governor Rick Perry

Texas politics are dominated by fiscal and social conservatism. The political climate is currently dominated by the Republican Party, which has strong majorities in the Texas Senate and House of Representatives, reversing the trend of the previous 130 years of Democratic Party rule. Every executive branch official elected statewide is Republican, as is every member of Texas's two courts of last resort; no Democrat has won a statewide election since 1994. The majority of the state's delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives is Republican, as are both U.S. Senators.

Like the Southern states, Texas historically was a one-party state of the Democratic Party. The Democrats controlled a majority in the Texas House and in the state's Congressional delegation until the 2002 and 2004 elections, respectively.

There are thirty-two congressional districts in Texas, the second most after California. Texas's congressional districts were redrawn in 2003 by the Republican-dominated legislature. Districts are usually drawn after the national census every 10 years, but an impasse in the Texas Legislature resulted in the districts being drawn by the courts in 2001. The legislature, with controversial help from U.S. Congressman Tom DeLay, redrew the districts after the Republicans gained a larger share of the legislature. A court challenge to the legality of the non-Census-timed redistricting was upheld by the Republican-dominated Texas Supreme Court; the United States Supreme Court remanded the map to a three-judge federal panel to redraw the 23rd District, which it ruled unconstitutionally diluted Hispanic voting strength in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The court otherwise upheld the rest of the districts on the map in question and noted that after a map meets all legal rules and laws, one drawn by the state's elected officials is preferred over one drawn by federal judges. The Democratic challengers of the map had pointed to an early 1990's map drawn by federal judges as one that should be kept in use.

Administrative divisions

Map of Texas counties

Texas has a total of 254 counties—the most of any state. Each county is run by a commissioners court consisting of four elected commissioners and a county judge elected from all the voters of the county. County government is similar to the "weak" mayor-council system; the county judge has no veto authority, but votes along with the other commissioners. All county elections are partisan.

Unlike other states, Texas does not allow for consolidated city-county governments, nor does it have a form of metropolitan government. Cities and counties are permitted to enter "interlocal agreements" to share services. Further, counties are not granted "home rule" status; their powers are strictly defined by state law and the Texas Constitution.

Texas does not have townships—areas within a county are either incorporated or unincorporated. Incorporated areas are part of a city, though the city may contract with the county for needed services. Unincorporated areas are not part of a city; in these areas, the county has authority for law enforcement and road maintenance. Cities are classified as either "general law" or "home rule". A city may elect home rule status (draft an independent city charter) once it exceeds 5,000 population and the voters agree to home rule. Otherwise, it is classified as general law and has very limited powers. All municipal elections in Texas are nonpartisan. Once a city elects home rule status, it keeps that status even if the population later falls below 5,000.

See also: List of Texas counties, List of Texas county name etymologies, and List of Texas county seat name etymologies

Economy

Main article: Economy of Texas

File:Cotton harvest.jpg

Cotton harvesting in Texas

In 2007 Texas had a gross state product of $1.045 trillion, the second highest in the U.S. after California, after recently surpassing New York state. Gross state product per capita as of 2005 was $42,975. Texas leads the nation in number of beef, which usually exceed 16 million head. Cotton is the leading crop and the state's second-most-valuable farm product. Texas also leads in national production of grain sorghum, watermelons, cabbages, and spinach. Wheat, corn, and other grains are also important. Texas's growth is often attributed to the availability of jobs, the low cost of housing (housing values in the Dallas and Houston areas, while generally rising, have not risen at the astronomical rates of other cities such as San Francisco), the lack of a personal state income tax, low taxation and limited regulation of business, a geographic location in the center of the country, limited government (the Texas Legislature meets only once every two years), favorable climate in many areas of the state, and vast, plentiful supplies of oil and natural gas. The known petroleum deposits of Texas are about 8 billion barrels, Which makes up approximately one-third of the known U. S. supply. Texas has 4.6 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves. There are currently 33 billionaires residing in Texas today. Dallas has 11 billionaires, the most of any city in Texas.

Texas remained largely rural until World War II, with cattle ranching, oil, and agriculture as its main industries. Cattle ranching (though important) was never Texas's chief industry – before the oil boom back to the period of the first Anglo settlers, the chief industry was cotton farming (as in most of the South).

In 1926, San Antonio had over 120,000 people, the largest population of any city in Texas. After World War II, Texas became increasingly industrialized. Its economy today relies largely on information technology, oil and natural gas, fuel processing, electric power, agriculture, and manufacturing. The major segment of the economy depends largely on the region involved – for example, the timber industry is a major portion of the East Texas economy but a non-factor elsewhere, while aerospace and defense manufacturing is primarily centered within the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

The state has two major economic centers: Dallas and Houston. Houston stands at the center of the petrochemical, biomedical research trades, and aerospace (particularly NASA) while Dallas functions as the center of the defense manufacturing and information technology labor market in Texas.

File:4233-03.jpg

Port of Houston

As of 2006, Texas, for the first time, has more Fortune 500 company headquarters (56) than any other state (California has 55; ironically, it was due to the move of Fluor Corp. from California to Texas). This has been attributed to both the growth in population in Texas and the rise of oil prices in 2005, which resulted in the growth in revenues of many Texas oil drilling and processing companies.

In 2006, for the fifth year in a row, Texas was ranked as the number one state by export revenues. Texas exports for 2006 totaled $150.8 billion, which is $22.1 billion more than 2005 and represents a 17.2 percent increase. In 2002, the Port of Houston was 6th among the top sea ports in the world in terms of total cargo volume; Air Cargo World rated Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as "the best air cargo airport in the world".

Texans pride themselves in a history of tradition, yet they seek new social and technological developments also. Round Rock (an Austin suburb) is the headquarters of Dell and the surrounding area is known as "Silicon Hills". Dallas is a famously cosmopolitan metropolis and the birthplace of the integrated circuit, and Houston is a global leader in the energy industry. The cultures of San Antonio and El Paso retain their Mexican heritage while Fort Worth maintains its western heritage. With a nod to its diversity and its past as a sovereign nation, the state tourism slogan is "Texas: It's like a whole other country.®" (The slogan is used only in domestic advertising, a different slogan is used for marketing to Latin American countries.)

Texas is one of the top filmmaking states in the United States, just after California and New York. Austin, Texas is now one of the leading filmmaking locations in the country. In the past 10 years alone (1995-2004), more than $2.75 billion has been spent in Texas for film and television production. The Texas Film Commission was founded for free services to filmmakers, from location research to traveling.

Since 2003, Texas state officials have been committed to developing the economy of Texas with various initiatives such as the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, which invest money into developing Texas business.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Texas

Texas Population Density Map

The center of population of Texas is located in Bell County, in the town of Holland.

As of 2005, the state has an estimated population of 23,507,783, an increase of 579,275 (2.5%) from the prior year and an increase of 2,655,993 (12.7%) since the year 2000. In all three subcategories—natural (births less deaths), net immigration, and net migration—Texas has seen an increase in population. The natural increase since the last census was 1,389,275 people (2,351,909 births minus 962,634 deaths), immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 801,576 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 451,910 people. The state passed New York in the 1990s to become the second-largest U.S. state in population (after California).

As of 2004, the state has 3.5 million foreign-born residents (15.6% of the state population), of which an estimated 1.2 million are illegal immigrants (illegal immigrants account for more than one-third of the foreign-born population in Texas and 5.4 percent of the total state population).

Race and ethnic origins

According to the 2005 US census bureau, Texas's ethnic origins are as following:

White American 71.9%, African American 11%, Other 11.6%, Asian American 3%, Mixed race 1.7%,

Hispanic American's as of 2005 made up 35.5% of the state population

The largest reported ancestry groups in Texas include: Mexican (25.3%), German (10.9%), African American (10.5%), English (7.2%), and Scots-Irish (7.2%). Descendants from some of these ancestry groups is underreported.

Much of east, central, and north Texas is inhabited by Texans of White Protestant heritage, primarily descended from ancestors from Great Britain and Ireland. Much of central and southeast-central Texas is inhabited by Texans of German descent. African Americans, who historically made up one-third of the state population, are concentrated in those parts of East Texas where the cotton plantation culture was most prominent prior to the American Civil War, as well as in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metropolitan areas.

Other population groups in Texas also exhibit great diversity. Frontier Texas saw settlements of Germans, particularly in Fredericksburg and New Braunfels. After the European revolutions of 1848, German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Czech and French immigration grew, and continued until World War I. The influence of the diverse immigrants from Europe survives in the names of towns, styles of architecture, genres of music, and varieties of cuisine. Lavaca County is predominantly Czech.

More than one-third of Texas residents are of Hispanic origin and may be of any racial group. Some are recent arrivals from Mexico, Central America, or South America, while others, known as Tejanos in English, have Spanish ancestors who have lived in Texas since before Texan independence, or at least for several generations. Tejanos are the largest ancestral group in southern Duval County. The Hispanic population in Texas is increasing as more illegal immigrants from certain Latin American countries—primarily from Mexico—look for work in Texas. The state has the second-largest Hispanic population in the United States, behind California. Numerically, Hispanics dominate south, south-central, and west Texas and are a significant part of the residents in the cities of Dallas and Houston. This influx of immigrants is partially responsible for Texas having a population younger than the union average.

In recent years, the Asian American population in Texas has grown, especially in Houston and in Dallas. People with ancestry from India, Vietnam, Pakistan, China, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan make up the largest Asian American groups in Texas.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Texas

Big Tex has presided over every Texas State Fair since 1952

Due to immigration in the United States history, the culture of Texas has been a melting pot of different cultures around the world. Texas is a diverse and an international place to live, in part because of its many academic institutions and strong biomedical, energy, manufacturing and aerospace industries.

There are many popular events held in Texas celebrating cultures of Texans. The annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo that is held over 20 days from late February through early March. The event begins with trail rides that originate from several points throughout the state, all of which convene at Reliant Park for a barbecue cook-off. The rodeo includes typical rodeo events, as well as concert performances from major artists and carnival rides. The World’s first rodeo was held in Pecos, Texas on 4 July 1883. The Fort Worth Livestock Show and Rodeo lasts three weeks in late January and early February. It has many traditional rodeos, but also a cowboy rodeo, and a Mexican rodeo in recent years that have a large fan base for each. The State Fair of Texas is held in Dallas each year at Fair Park.

Texas has a vibrant live music scene in Austin boasting more music venues per capita than any other U.S. city, befitting the city's official slogan as The Live Music Capital of the World. Austin's music revolves around the many nightclubs on 6th Street and an annual film, music, and multimedia festival known as South by Southwest. The longest-running concert music program on American television, Austin City Limits, is videotaped on The University of Texas at Austin campus or Zilker Park. Austin City Limits and Waterloo Records run the Austin City Limits Music Festival, an annual music and art festival held at Zilker Park in Austin.

Over the years, San Antonio evolved into the "Nashville" of Tejano music. The Tejano Music Awards have provided a forum to create greater awareness and appreciation for Tejano culture.

See also: List of people from Texas, List of Texas symbols, Don't Mess with Texas, and Gone to Texas

Arts and theatre

Alley Theatre in Houston

Known for the vibrancy of its visual and performing arts, the Houston Theatre District—a 17-block area in the heart of Downtown Houston—is ranked second in the country (behind New York City) in the number of theatre seats in a concentrated downtown area with 12,948 seats for live performances and 1,480 movie seats.

Houston is also one of only five cities in the United States with permanent professional resident companies in all of the major performing arts disciplines (the Houston Grand Opera, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Ballet, and The Alley Theatre). Houston is widely recognized as the nation's third most important city for contemporary visual arts.

Dallas and Fort Worth serve as epicenters of the North Texas region's art scene. The Modern (formerly the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth), founded in 1892, is the oldest art museum in Texas. The city is also home to the Kimbell Art Museum, the Amon Carter Museum, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, the Will Rogers Memorial Center, and the Bass Performance Hall downtown. The Arts District of Downtown Dallas is home to several arts venues. Notable venues in the district include the Dallas Museum of Art, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, and the Nasher Sculpture Center.

Also within Dallas is the notable Deep Ellum district which originally became popular during the 1920s and 1930s as the prime jazz and blues hotspot in the Southern United States. The name Deep Ellum is thought to have originally derived from local tongues saying "Deep Elm", but that came out as "Deep Ellum". Artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, and Bessie Smith played in original Deep Ellum clubs like The Harlem and The Palace. Today, Deep Ellum is home to hundreds of artists who live in lofts and operate in studios throughout the district alongside bars, pubs, and concert venues. One major art infusion in the area is the city's lax stance on graffiti, thusly several public ways including tunnels, sides of buildings, sidewalks, and streets are covered in murals.

Sports

File:Afia.jpg

Ameriquest Field in Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers

Texas is known for its love of American football and is noted for the intensity with which people follow high school and college football teams—often dominating over all else for the purposes of socializing and leisure. The Dallas Cowboys are often referred to as "America's Team." The Houston Oilers left to become the Tennessee Titans, but the Houston Texans took their place. Since the Titans have drafted state hero Vince Young the Titans games are shown in Austin instead of the Texans games.

Baseball is also very popular in Texas, with Major League Baseball teams the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros equally popular in the state, as North Texas, West Texas, and Panhandle residents are predominantly Rangers fans, while Southeast Texas, Central Texas, and South Texas is predominantly inhabited by Astros fans. Minor league baseball is also closely followed.

Other popular sports in Texas include golf (which can be played year-round because of the South's mild climate), basketball (the state has three NBA teams, the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, and Dallas Mavericks), fishing, and auto racing. Lacrosse, originally played by some of the indigenous tribes, is a visible sport and growing. Soccer is a popular participatory sport—especially among children—but as a spectator sport, it does not yet have a large following despite two Texan teams in Major League Soccer. Hockey has been a growing participatory sport in the Dallas/Fort Worth area since the Minnesota North Stars became the Dallas Stars in 1993. Minor league pro hockey has become quite popular in the last decade; Texas is home to seven of the Central Hockey League's seventeen teams. Texas is also home to the Houston Aeros and San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League and the Texas Wildcatters of the ECHL.

Seven times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is from Plano, Texas.

Many professional wrestlers have come from Texas. These include Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Eddie Guerrero, King Booker, Paul London and many more.

Further information: [[:List of Texas sports teams]]

Skyline profile

Texas is home to many of the tallest skyscrapers in the United States.

The Houston skyline has been ranked fourth-most impressive in the United States when ranked primarily by height, being the country's third-tallest skyline (after Chicago and New York City) and one of the top 10 in the world; however, because it is spread over a few miles, most pictures of the city show only the main downtown area. Houston has a system of tunnels and skywalks linking buildings in downtown. The tunnel system also includes shops, restaurants, and convenience stores.

Images shown below are the eight tallest buildings in Texas.

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  1. JPMorgan Chase Tower
  Houston
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  2. Wells Fargo Bank Plaza
  Houston
• 
  3. Bank of America Plaza
  Dallas
• 4. Williams Tower Houston
  4. Williams Tower
  Houston
• 5. Renaissance Tower Dallas
  5. Renaissance Tower
  Dallas
• 
  6. Chase Center
  Dallas
• 
  7. Bank of America Center
  Houston
• 
  8. Heritage Plaza
  Houston

See also: Architecture of Houston

Cities

Houston

San Antonio

Dallas

Austin

File:DTFW.JPG

Fort Worth

El Paso

Ranked by population of cities (incorporated municipalities), the six largest cities in Texas are Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, and El Paso.

Texas is the only state in the U.S. to have three cities with populations exceeding one million: Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas; which are also among the 10 largest cities of the United States. Austin and Fort Worth are in the top 20 largest U.S. cities.

Houston and Dallas are two of 11 U.S. world-class cities ranked by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC).

Houston is world-renowned for its energy (particularly oil) and aeronautics industries, and for its ship channel. The city has a vibrant visual and performing arts scene as Houston is one of the five U.S. cities that offer world-class, year-round resident companies in all major performing arts.

Dallas is known globally as a center for telecommunications, computer technology, banking, and transportation. The city is the core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the nation that lacks any direct link to the sea—Dallas's prominence despite this comes from its historical importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries, its position along numerous railroad lines, and its powerful industrial and financial tycoons.

Texas rank	U.S. rank	City	Population within city limits	Land Area sq miles	Texas Region	U.S. Region
1	4	Houston	2,016,582	601.7	East Texas	South
2	7	San Antonio	1,256,509	412.1	South Texas	Southwest
3	9	Dallas	1,213,825	385.0	North Texas	South
4	16	Austin	690,252	258.4	Central Texas	Southwest
5	19	Fort Worth	624,067	298.9	North Texas
6	21	El Paso	598,590	250.5	West Texas	Southwest

Further information: [[:List of cities in Texas]]

See also: Population of Texas cities in 2000

Metropolitan areas

Texas has 25 metropolitan areas (MSAs) defined by the United States Census Bureau. The two largest are ranked among the top 10 United States metropolitan areas. One out of two Texans reside in the Houston and Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan areas.

As of November 2003, there is now an additional classification, that of a “metropolitan division.” Texas has two metropolitan divisions within the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington MSA. The term metropolitan division is used to refer to a county or group of counties within a metropolitan area that has a population core of at least 2.5 million. While a metropolitan division is a subdivision of a larger metropolitan area, it often functions as a distinct social, economic, and cultural area within the larger region.

The following table lists population figures for those metropolitan areas, in rank of population as of the 2005 U.S. Census estimates.

Texas rank	U.S. rank	Metropolitan Area	Metropolitan Division	Population
1	5	Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington		5,819,475
			Dallas–Plano–Irving	3,893,123
			Fort Worth–Arlington	1,926,352
2	7	Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown		5,280,077
3	29	San Antonio		1,889,797
4	38	Austin–Round Rock		1,452,529
5	68	El Paso		721,598

Further information: [[:List of Texas metropolitan areas]]

See also: List of United States metropolitan areas

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in Texas

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is a governmental agency and its purpose is to "provide safe, effective, and efficient movement of people and goods" throughout the state. Though the public face of the agency is generally associated with maintenance of the state's immense highway system, the agency is also responsible for aviation in the state and overseeing public transportation systems.

Highways

Main article: Texas state highways

State Highway 45, the first of several toll roads in Central Texas, under construction

Texas freeways are heavily traveled and are often under construction to meet the demands of continuing growth. As of 2005, there were 79,535 miles of public highway in Texas (up from 71,000 in 1984). Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) planners have sought ways to reduce rush hour congestion, primarily through High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes for vans and carpools. The "Texas T", an innovation originally introduced in Houston, is a ramp design that allows vehicles in the HOV lane, which is usually the center lane, to exit directly to transit centers or to enter the freeway directly into the HOV lane without crossing multiple lanes of traffic. Timed freeway entrances, which regulate the addition of cars to the freeway, are also common. Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and El Paso have extensive networks of freeway cameras linked to transit control centers to monitor and study traffic.

Governor Rick Perry has implemented plans for the Trans Texas Corridor, which will connect cities throughout the state with a series of multi modal corridors. The overall project will cost roughly 142 billion dollars. Individual companies will take on projects and throughout time as demand calls for it, sections of the project will be built. The Trans Texas Corridor insures the future for all Texans by providing a stable source of jobs to the economy. However, concern runs high in Texas over the implementation of the corridor. Common arguments include: Among the most significant is the fact that the TTC will be extremely expensive. Additionally the system will require about 9,000 square miles (23,300 km²) of land to be purchased or acquired through the state's assertion of eminent domain. Environmentalists are concerned about the effects of such wide corridors, and private land owners have expressed disgust at the idea that their land may be seized and in turn be sold in exclusive agreements to other developers in order to help pay for the transit links.

Ironically, while Governor Rick Perry is supportive of the plan, the Republican Party of Texas 2006 platform opposes the Corridor. The population of Texas is expected to double in the near future, and highways are already congested. The corridor will include tollways for passenger vehicles and trucks. It will also include 6 rail lines for high speed passenger rail, commuter rail, and freight. The last part of the corridor will be utility lines for water, petroleum, natural gas, and electricity.

One characteristic of Texas's freeways are its frontage roads (also known as service roads or feeder roads). Texas is the only state that widely constructs frontage/access roads along its highways even in the most remote areas. Frontage roads provide access to the freeway from businesses alongside, such as gas stations and retail stores, and vice versa. Alongside most freeways along with the frontage roads are two to four lanes in each direction parallel to the freeway permitting easy access to individual city streets. New landscaping projects and a longstanding ban on new billboards are ways Houston has tried to control the potential side effects of convenience.

Another common characteristic found near Texas overpasses are the Texas U-turns which is a lane allowing cars traveling on one side of a one-way frontage road to U-turn into the opposite frontage road (typically crossing over or under a freeway or expressway) without being stopped by traffic lights or crossing the highway traffic at-grade.

Airports

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport

The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, located nearly equidistant from downtown Dallas and downtown Fort Worth, is the largest airport in the state, the second largest in the United States, and fourth largest in the world. In terms of traffic, DFW is the busiest in the state, third busiest in the United States, and sixth busiest in the world. The airport serves 135 domestic destinations and 37 international, and is the largest and main hub for American Airlines (900 daily departures), the world's largest airline, and also the largest hub for American Eagle.

Texas's second-largest air facility is Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). The airport is the ninth-busiest in the United States for total passengers, and nineteenth-busiest worldwide. Houston is the headquarters of Continental Airlines, and the airport is Continental Airlines' largest hub, with over 750 daily departures (the majority of which are operated by Continental Airlines). A long list of cities within Texas, as well as international destinations are served directly from this airport. With 30 destinations in Mexico, IAH offers service to more Mexican destinations than any other U.S. airports. IAH currently ranks second among U.S. airports with scheduled non-stop domestic and international service (221 destinations), trailing only Atlanta Hartsfield with 250 destinations.

Some of the other airports that are served by airlines include Dallas Love Field, Houston Hobby Airport, San Antonio International Airport, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, El Paso International Airport, Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport, and Valley International Airport in Harlingen.

Passenger rail transportation

METRORail in Downtown Houston

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), the Dallas area public transportation authority, began operating the first light rail system in the Southwest United States in 1996 and continues to expand its coverage. The DART light rail system remained the only one in Texas until METRORail opened in Houston in 2004.

The Trinity Railway Express line connects Dallas with Fort Worth and is operated by an interlocal agreement between the DART system and Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) in Fort Worth.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) operates light rail service in Harris County, which includes Houston. The light rail (METRORail) in Houston started on January 1 2004. Currently the track runs about 8 miles (13 km) from Downtown Houston to the Texas Medical Center and Reliant Park. METRO also operates bus service in Harris County and to two cities in Fort Bend County.

Intercity passenger rail service in Texas is at the moment very limited from both network and frequency viewpoint, with just three Amtrak trains serving the state: the daily Texas Eagle (Chicago-San Antonio), the tri-weekly Sunset Limited (New Orleans-Los Angeles) and the daily Heartland Flyer (Fort Worth-Oklahoma City).

Healthcare and medicine

Main article: Texas Medical Center

Texas Medical Center in Houston

Houston is the seat of the internationally-renowned Texas Medical Center, which contains the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions.

There are 42 member institutions in the Texas Medical Center—all are non-profit organizations, and are dedicated to the highest standards of patient and preventive care, research, education, and local, national, and international community well-being. These institutions include 13 renowned hospitals and two specialty institutions, two medical schools, four nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, pharmacy, and virtually all health-related careers. It is where one of the first, and still the largest, air emergency services was created—a very successful inter-institutional transplant program was developed—and more heart surgeries are performed there than anywhere else in the world.

Some of the academic and research health institutions are Baylor College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, University of Texas Health Science Center, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is widely considered one of the world’s most productive and highly-regarded academic institutions devoted to cancer patient care, research, education and prevention.

Other healthcare and medical research centers in the state are the South Texas Medical Center in San Antonio and the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Texas has two Biosafety Level 4 laboratories: one at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, and the other at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, the first privately owned BSL-4 lab in the United States.

In May 2006, Texas initiated the program "code red" in response to the report that Texas, at 25.1%, has the largest number of un-insured population of any state.

See also: List of hospitals in Texas

Education

Main article: Education in Texas

Rice University

There are more than 100 colleges and universities and dozens of institutions engaged in research and development in Texas. The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, the University of Houston and The University of North Texas are Texas's four largest comprehensive doctoral degree granting institutions with a combined enrollment of over 135,000. Other large universities include Texas State University, the Texas Tech University and the University of Texas at San Antonio. The state is also home to Rice University—one of the country’s leading teaching and research universities—ranked the 17th-best university overall in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

The state's public school systems are administered by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Texas has over 1,000 school districts—all but one of the school districts in Texas are separate from any form of municipal government. School districts may (and often do) cross city and county boundaries—an exception to this rule is Stafford Municipal School District. School districts have the power to tax their residents and to use eminent domain.

Texas also has numerous private schools of all types. The TEA has no authority over private school operations; private schools may or may not be accredited, and achievement tests are not required for private school graduating seniors. Many private schools will obtain accreditation and perform achievement tests as a means of encouraging future parents that the school is genuinely interested in educational performance.

It is generally considered to be among the least restrictive states in which to home school. Neither TEA nor the local school district has authority to regulate home school activities. There are no minimum number of days in a year, or hours in a day, that must be met, and achievement tests are not required for home school graduating seniors. The validity of home schooling was challenged in Texas, but a landmark case, Leeper v. Arlington ISD, ruled that home schooling was legal and that the state had little or no authority to regulate the practice.

Texas is notorious for the prominence of high school sports, having more football teams than any other state. It is also notable for its prominence in college sports, particularly football, in which it has 10 Division I-A football teams, more than any other state.

Further information: [[:List of colleges and universities in Texas and List of school districts in Texas]]

.

Further reading

• Template:Wikitravel
• The Handbook of Texas Online - Published by the Texas State Historical Association thousands of scholarly articles on every aspect of texas history
• Alvin R. Bailey Jr. and Light Townsend Cummins, eds. A Guide to the History of Texas. Greenwood Press. 1988.
• Randolph B. Campbell, Gone to Texas: a History of the Lone Star State (Oxford University Press, 2003, 500 pages.
• Montejano, David. Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836–1986 University of Texas Press, 1987.
• Wooster, Ralph A. and Robert A. Calvert, eds. Texas Vistas (1987) scholarly articles
• Campbell, Randolph B. Sam Houston and the American Southwest HarperCollins, 1993.
• Jordan, Terry G. Trails to Texas: Southern Roots of Western Cattle Ranching University of Nebraska Press, 1981.
• Olien, Diana Davids, and Roger M. Olien. Oil in Texas: The Gusher Age, 1895–1945 University of Texas Press, 2002.
• Perryman, M. Ray. Survive and Conquer, Texas in the '80s: Power—Money—Tragedy … Hope! Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1990.

External links

• The State of Texas
• Satellite image from Wikimapia
• Texas Tourism - Texas: It's like a whole other country
• About Texas - Many Texas subject area links from the Texas State Library
• The Handbook of Texas Online - Published by the Texas State Historical Association
• Texas Politics: Texas government resource provided by the University of Texas at Austin
• Texas Online - The Texas Government web portal.
• Texas Legislature Online
• Statistics about Texas
• The Portal to Texas History
• State Department of Public Safety, Texas Ranger Division
• Texas Historical Commission - Official website
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum
• Texas Register, hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries
• The Native Plant Society of Texas
• The Native Prairies Association of Texas
• Open Directory: Texas
• Texas State Facts
• Texas Economy
• Texas Photographs
• USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Texas

United States

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