There’s A Lot About Texas You May Not Know. Lets See!

Texans pride themselves on knowledge of our state. Children are taught at an early age that the mockingbird is the state bird, the state flower is the bluebonnet, and the state motto is friendship. Here are 20 facts about Texas, many of which you may not know!

20. The world’s first rodeo was held in Pecos, Texas on the Fourth of July, 1883.

19. Texas has had six flags that flew over our home state, and we are the only state where our flag can fly at the same height as the United States Flag.

18. Texas is the number one producer of wool in the United States. You probably know that if you live in San Angelo!

17. Despite popular belief, Texas does not have the constitutional right to secede. The Tyler-Texas Treaty of 1845 maintains that Texas has the right to split into as many as five separate states. This provision somehow spawned the misconception that the Lone Star State could legally secede.

16. Built in 1870, the Waco bridge was the first suspension bridge ever built in the United States. It is still in use as a pedestrian bridge crossing the Brazos River.

15. The King Ranch is larger than the state of Rhode Island.

14. The term “maverick” comes from Texas lawyer and pioneer, Samuel Maverick, who was also one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

13. There are more species of bats in the Lone Star State than any other state in the country.

12. John William Heisman, after whom the Heisman Trophy is named, coached football at Rice University in Houston from 1924 to 1927.

11. Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson, Texas and was first marketed by Marty and Harley Tyson in 1978.

10. The most devastating national disaster in U.S. history is the Galveston hurricane in 1900 which took over 8,000 lives.

9. Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas is the largest church in the nation. It is home to famous pastor Joel Osteen and his congregation of over 43,000 people.

8. You could fit the entire state of Connecticut inside Texas’s largest county, Brewster County, in the Big Bend region of Texas.

7. Two United States Presidents were born in Texas, and neither one was George W. Bush who was born in Connecticut. The two Texas-born Presidents were Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson.

6. Chuck Norris, star of the television show “Walker, Texas Ranger” was made an honorary Texas Ranger in 2010.

5. There is a live oak tree near Rockport, Texas that is over 1,500 years old.

4. The physical area of Houston is large enough to hold Boston, New York City and San Francisco concurrently.

3. The most common foreign language spoken in Texas other than Spanish is Vietnamese.

2. The hottest temperature ever recorded in Texas, 120 degrees Fahrenheit, was recorded in Seymour, Texas in August of 1936. The coldest was -23 degrees, recorded in Seminole in February of 1933.

1. Because it was its own independent nation, Texas is the only state in the United States to join via treaty instead of annexation.

I hope you found some of these facts to be interesting & be looking for more to come your way soon!