75 Fun Facts About Texas: The Lone Star State
Learn about the “Lone Star State” with these interesting fun facts about Texas.
Texas state in the USA is one of the country’s largest, most varied, and most unique states. From cowboy culture to space exploration, it has an incredibly storied past. So what exactly is Texas famous for? Let’s find out.
Texas At-a-Glance
Location: South Central U.S., borders with Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Mexico, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Population: Over 30 million (2nd most populous in the U.S.).
Capital: Austin
Area: 268,596 sq mi (2nd largest U.S. state by area and population).
Languages: English (primary), Spanish.
Religion: Predominantly Christian.
Climate: Arid west, humid east; hot summers, mild winters.
(Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia)
General Texas Facts
1. Texas is a large state lying right in the middle of the southern United States.
2. At 268,596 mi2 (695,662 km2), Texas is the country’s second-largest state, after Alaska, and the largest state in the Contiguous United States (AKA the “Lower 48 States”).
3. Texas is larger than Italy, the United Kingdom, and Greece combined.
4. If Texas were a country, it would be the 39th largest in the world.
5. Texas is one of four states bordering Mexico (along with California, Arizona, and New Mexico), and has a longer border with Mexico (1241 mi/1997 km) than the other three states combined.
6. Texas is also bordered by New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
7. Texas has the second highest population in the US, 29.9 million, after California.
8. Texas has over 75% the total population of Canada.
9. Texas has three of the USA’s largest cities by population: Houston (4th spot at 2.29 million), San Antonio (7th spot at 1.4 million), and Dallas (9th spot at 1.3 million).
10. The capital city of Texas, Austin, is the 11th most populous city in the US, with just under 1 million people. It is the USA’s 2nd most populous state capital, after Phoenix, Arizona.
11. The Texas Triangle (known as Texaplex) is made up of the four major cities of Austin, Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. With a total population of 21 million, it is considered one of the megaregions of the US.
12. In the past, Texas has been a part of Mexico and has been its own country, called Republic of Texas (see history section below).
13. In addition to being its own country and being part of Mexico, four other states have had control over parts of Texas (the others being Spain, France, Confederate Stats, and USA), giving rise to the slogan “six flags over Texas”. There is even a Six Flags over Texas theme park.
14. Texas culture has been influenced by various cultures and peoples around it, including native peoples, Mexicans, Cajuns, African Americans, the Spanish and other European cultures. There are even a few German towns in Texas with their own Texas German dialect!
15. Texas has traits that could classify it as Southern state or a Southwestern state. Some consider it to just be its own thing.
16. This history is reflected in Texas’ nickname, “Lone Star State”, and in the single star on the state flag.
17. Geographically, Texas has a wide variety of physical regions, including coastal plains, lowlands, plains, mountains, and deserts.
18. The name Texas is derived from táysha, which means “friends” in the indigenous Caddo language.
Interesting Facts About Texas
19. Texas is the fifth biggest wine producer in the US. Fredericksburg is at the heart of Texas’ wine country, and one of the top things to do in Fredericksburg is of course visiting wineries!
20. Though typically considered Conservative, Texas was traditionally a Liberal state.
21. Texas has more guns than any other US state, with more than 1 million registered firearms.
22. The state also has more deer than any other state.
23. The road with the fastest speed limit in the US is in Texas. On a section of Texas State Highway 130, the posted limit is 85 mph (137 km/hr).
24. Lavender, which is native to the Mediterranean, is now grown in Texas; there are numerous lavender fields and even lavender festivals in central Texas.
25. Texas is home to two national parks: Big Bend National Park, named after a famous bend in the Rio Grande along the US-Mexico border, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park, named after the highest peak in Texas. They are two of the top natural places to visit in Texas.
26. There are 79,000 miles of roads crisscrossing the state, perfect for planning a Texas road trip.
27. Texas is home to one UNESCO World Heritage Site: the San Antonio Missions, which includes the famous Alamo Mission in San Antonio, associated with the battle for Texas’ independence from Mexico.
28. Texas has played a large role in space exploration. NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is the training grounds for many astronauts, while the associated Space Center Houston is one of the country’s best space museums.
29. The popular phase “Houston, we have a problem” originated in a radio communication between the Apollo 13 and the control center in Houston, Texas.
30. The Texas State Capitol building in Austin is the largest state capitol building in the US. It was one of the largest buildings in the world when it was first constructed.
31. King Ranch in southeastern Texas is the largest ranch in the US, covering 825,000 acres, which is larger than Hong Kong.
32. At the Cadillac Ranch public art installation in Amarillo, Texas, there are 10 art-covered Cadillacs half buried in the ground. The site inspired Bruce Springsteen’s song of the same name.
33. Amarillo also has the world’s largest helium supply and has been called the “Helium capital of the world.”
34. The Balcones fault line runs right through Texas, but it has been inactive for 15 million years and seldom causes earthquakes.
35. Although Texas is often associated with the deserts of the southwestern US, only about 10% of the state is covered in desert.
36. Texas has more tornadoes than any other state, with 132 per year on average.
37. Bracken Cave just outside of San Antonio, Texas, has the world’s largest bat colony, home to over 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats.
38. Texas has the second largest economy in the US after California.
39. If Texas were a country, it would have the 10th largest economy in the world.
40. Traditionally, Texas dominated the cattle industry, but in recent centuries the economy has shifted to petroleum, tourism, aerospace, and the high tech industry.
41. Texas is the only state in the contiguous USA with its own power grid. Two others serve all the states east and west of the Rockies. It was first built to guarantee energy supply for factories producing WWII supplies.
42. Famous people from Texas include cyclist Lance Armstrong, actresses Joan Crawford and Farrah Fawcett, Dell founder Michael Dell, business magnate Howard Hughes, and actor-comedian Steve Martin.
43. Famous musicians and bands from Texas include Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Janis Joplin, Meatloaf, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson, ZZ Top, George Strait, Erykah Badu, Beyoncé, Selena Gomez, and Kelly Clarkson.
44. Former presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson were born in Texas.
45. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination took place in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. The spot where the assassin fired from is now the Sixth Floor Museum.
46. Before becoming the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush was the governor of Texas from 1995–2000.
47. The Bugs Bunny phrase “What’s up, Doc?” originated in Texas. Looney Tunes animator Tex Avery, who introduced it, said it was commonly heard when he was growing up there.
48. American Airlines, the largest airline in the United States by total passengers, is headquartered at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas.
49. There are two towns in Texas that claim to be the “Cowboy Capital of the World”: Stephenville and Bandera.
50. Texas is the origin of “Tex-Mex,” a type of cuisine that combines traditional Spanish and Mexican cuisines. It originated among Tejanos (Mexican Texans) when Texas was part of New Spain.
51. Many consider Texas to have the best BBQ in the US. East, West, North and South Texas each have their own distinctive styles of BBQ.
52. The soda drink Dr. Pepper was invented in Texas in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton.
53. The first frozen margarita machine was also invented in Texas in 1971.
Historical Facts about Texas
54. Remains of a house dating to 14,000 years ago found near Austin may be the oldest house found in North America.
55. The area of Texas was traditionally occupied by the Pueblo, the Caddo and other mound-building cultures, and early Mexican civilizations.
56. In 1520, the Spanish Alonso Álvarez de Pineda was the first European to see Texas, while trying to find a route from the Gulf of Mexico to Asia.
57. Although Álvarez claimed the area for Spain, the region of Texas was mostly ignored for almost 200 years.
58. In 1685, France built the settlement of Fort St. Louis in Texas and tried to colonize the area, but the Spanish kicked them out within five years.
59. Texas was a Spanish colony from 1690 to 1821. During that time, the Spanish built numerous missions, developed agriculture and ranching, and chose place names that remain today, in what was the northern fringe of their vast South, Central and North American empire.
60. When Mexico became independent in 1821, that included Texas. The state was thus a part of Mexico from 1821 to 1836.
61. In the 1836 Texas Revolution, Texans declared their independence from Mexico and became an independent country, the Republic of Texas.
62. This would last until 1845, when Texas became the 28th state of the USA.
63. In the Compromise of 1850, Texas gave up on acquiring 67 million acres that are now part of New Mexico. Otherwise, Texas would have been even larger today.
64. In 1865, the last battle of the American Civil War took place at Palmito Ranch in Texas.
65. In 1900, as many as 8000 died in a hurricane, mostly around Galveston, Texas. It was the worst natural disaster in US history.
66. By the early 1900s, Dallas was the world’s leading center of cotton.
67. The first oil well in Texas was drilled in 1901. In 1931, the East Texas Oil Field, the largest in the lower 48 states, was discovered.
68. During the Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s, hundreds of thousands of Texans lost their jobs and left the state.
69. Texas played a major role in WWII, with many military bases, army hospitals, and munitions factories constructed, rapidly expanding the state’s economy.
70. In the 1950s, a multi-year drought led to mass urbanization in Texas.
71. On November 22, 1963, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The Texas governor at the time, John B. Connally, was also shot but survived.
72. In 1990, Democrat Ann Richards became the first female governor of Texas.
73. In the 1993, Waco Massacre, a 51-day standoff between Texas police and the Branch Davidian religious group resulted in 86 dead, including 25 children.
74. In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency declared Texas unfit to regulate its own greenhouse gas emissions.
75. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey caused over $40 billion in damage in Texas.
