About Texas Thursday Thirteen

All the crazy and not so crazy facts you ever wanted to know about Texas. Well, maybe not all of them, but I found quite a few.

1. Texas possesses three of the Top Ten most populous cities in the U.S. - Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.
2. Almost 10% of Texas is covered by forest which includes four national and five state forests.
3. State Flying Mammal: Mexican Free-tailed Bat
4. State Gemstone cut: The Lone Star Cut
5. Texas is the only state to have the flags of 6 different nations fly over it. They are: Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, Confederate States, and the United States.
6. The King Ranch in Texas is bigger than the state of Rhode Island.
7. The state was an independent nation from 1836 to 1845.
8. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. The Dublin Dr Pepper, 85 miles west of Waco, still uses pure imperial cane sugar in its product. There is no period after the Dr in Dr Pepper.
9. Texas comes from the Hasinai Indian word tejas meaning friends or allies.
10. The Flagship Hotel on Seawall Boulevard in Galveston is the only hotel in North America built entirely over the water.
11. Texas is the country's biggest producer of oil, cattle, sheep, minerals and cotton.
12. The worst natural disaster in U.S . history was in 1900, caused by a hurricane, in which over 8,000 lives were lost on Galveston Island .
13. Texas is the only state which still has the capacity to secede and become its own country. The Republic of Texas still stands.

Cowboy's Ten Commandments posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in
Fairlie , Texas :
(1) Just one God.
(2) Honor yer Ma & Pa.
(3) No telling tales or gossipin'.
(4) Git yourself to Sunday meeting.
(5) Put nothin' before God.
(6) No foolin' around with another fellow's gal.
(7) No killin'.
(8) Watch yer mouth.
(9) Don't take what ain't yers.
(10) Don't be hankerin' for yer buddy's stuff



 

From: http://www.trivia-library.com/b/places-in-world-most-likely-to-secede-texas.htm

If Texas were an independent nation, it would rank 5th in the world in petroleum production and 5th in cotton production, with a gross national product greater than Australia or Brazil.

From: Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/history/american/texas.asp

A clause in the document annexing Texas to the United States allowed for Texas to be divided into five different states

True!

What fun and colorful is our history!