Texas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

State of Texas

(Flag of Texas) (Seal of Texas)
State nickname: Lone Star State
Other U.S. States
Capital	Austin
Largest city	Houston
Governor	Rick Perry (R)
Senators	Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) John Cornyn (R)
Official language(s)	None. English and Spanish are de facto.
Area	696,241 km² (2nd)
- Land	678,907 km²
- Water	17,333 km² (2.5%)
Population (2000)
- Population	20,851,820 (2nd)
- Density	30.75 /km² (28th)
Admission into Union
- Date	December 29, 1845
- Order	28th
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5 Mountain: UTC-7/-6 (part of west Texas)
Latitude	25°50'N to 36°30'N
Longitude	93°31'W to 106°38'W
Width	1,065 km
Length	1,270 km
Elevation
- Highest point	Guadalupe Peak, 2,667 m
- Mean	520 m
- Lowest point	0 m
Abbreviations
- USPS	TX
- ISO 3166-2	US-TX
Web site	www.state.tx.us

Texas is a state located in the United States of America. The 28th U.S. state, Texas joined the United States in 1845. Its postal abbreviation is TX.

The state name derives from a word in a Caddoan language of the Hasinai, táyshaʔ (or tejas, as the Spaniards spelled it), meaning friends or allies. Spanish explorers mistakenly applied the word to the people and their location.

With an area of 696,241 km² and a population of 22.5 million, Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous 48 states in area. (Alaska is the largest U.S. state in area and California is the most populous.) Texas has historically had a "larger than life" reputation, especially in cowboy films.

Contents 1 History 2 Geography 2.1 Location 2.2 Human Geography 2.3 Natural Geography 3 Geology 4 Government and politics 4.1 State Law and Government 4.2 County Government 4.3 Municipal Government 4.4 School and Special Districts 4.5 Politics 5 Economy 5.1 Film and television 6 Demographics 6.1 Ethnic origins 7 Cities and metropolitan areas 7.1 Largest cities 7.2 Metropolitan areas 8 Education and scientific research 8.1 Public schools 8.2 Colleges and universities 9 Transportation 9.1 Interstate highways 9.2 United States highways 10 Professional sports teams 11 Miscellaneous information 11.1 State designations and symbols 11.2 Other state designations 12 See also 13 References 13.1 Further reading 14 External links

History

Main article: History of Texas

History of Texas
Spanish Texas
Mexican Texas
Republic of Texas
State of Texas

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

Native American tribes that once lived inside the boundaries of present-day Texas include Apache, Atakapan, Bidai, Caddo, Comanche, Cherokee, Kiowa, Tonkawa, and Wichita. 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.

On November 6, 1528 shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to set foot on Texas. A member of the Narváez expedition, he was later enslaved by a Native American tribe of the upper Gulf coast, and explored what are now the U.S. states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on foot from coastal Louisiana to Sinaloa, Mexico, over a period of roughly six years. He returned to Europe in 1537, where he wrote about his experiences in a work called La relación ("The Tale").

Prior to 1821, Texas was part of the Spanish colony of New Spain. After Mexican independence in 1821, Texas became part of Mexico and in 1824 became the northern section of Coahuila y Tejas. On 3 January 1823, Stephen F. Austin began a colony of 300 American families along the Brazos River in present-day Fort Bend County and Brazoria County, centered primarily in the area of what is now Sugar Land. 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. Policies that most irritated the Texians included the Mexican ban on slavery, the forcible disarmament of Texian settlers, and the expulsion of illegal immigrants from the United States of America. The example of the Centralista forces' suppression of dissidents in Zacatecas also inspired fear of the Mexican government.

On March 2, 1836, the "Convention of 1836" signed the Texas "Declaration of Independence," declaring Texas an independent nation. On April 21, 1836 the Texians won their independence when they defeated the Mexican forces of Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. Santa Anna himself passed into captivity, and on May 14, Republic of Texas officials and General Santa Anna signed the treaty of Velasco. The Republic of Texas included all the area now included in the state of Texas, although its self-proclaimed western and northwestern borders extended as far west as Santa Fe and as far northwest as present-day Wyoming, respectively.

In 1845, Texas was admitted to the United States as a constituent state of the Union. Annexation was mutually beneficial to Texas and the United States. Texas was in a very susceptible position following independence, with a weak government, little industry, and minimal infrastructure. The U.S. could not allow such a tenuous nation to sit right on its border. Texas also lay partially in the way of the U.S. expansion to the Pacific, and its "Manifest Destiny." The major stumbling block of annexation, besides the potential for war with Mexico, was the fact that Texas was a slave state and potentially would tip the balance between free and slave states due to its huge size. Some southerners were pushing for the ability to divide Texas into multiple states, thereby increasing the number of slave states even more. A compromise was reached in that if Texas were divided, any states north of the Missouri Compromise would be free states.

During the Civil War, Texas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America. In 1870, the United States Congress readmitted Texas into the Union.

Texas today is a state thoroughly steeped in tradition, yet equally embracing of new social and technological developments. From the state capital of Austin (also headquarters of Dell Computers and known as "Silicon Hills") to the cosmopolitan air of Dallas, to the oil-and-finance rich industry of Houston to the Latinesque cultures of San Antonio and El Paso, the state tourism slogan truly fits: "Texas: It's like a whole other country."

Geography

Location

Texas borders New Mexico on the west, Oklahoma on the north (across the Red River), and Louisiana (across the Sabine River) and Arkansas on the east. To the southwest, across the Rio Grande, Texas borders the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. To the southeast of Texas lies the Gulf of Mexico.

Texas lies in the south-central part of the United States of America. Texas is considered to form part of the US South and part of the U.S. Southwest. Some regions of Texas are associated with the Southwest more than the South, while other regions are associated with the South more than the Southwest. Texas shares some cultural elements with both regions, with more similarities with the South, especially Arkansas and Louisiana, in East Texas, and more similarities with the Southwest, especially Mexico and New Mexico, in West Texas and South Texas.

Human Geography

Articles on Texas regions:

• Central Texas
• East Texas
• North Texas
• Rio Grande Valley
• Texas Hill Country
• Llano Estacado
• West Texas

For the 254 counties of Texas,

Natural Geography

Caddo Lake

El Capitan Hill Country

Texas has five major topographic regions:

1. The Coastal Plain, from the Gulf of Mexico inland to about San Antonio and just southeast of Austin
2. The Hill Country and Edwards Plateau, a hilly rocky area in central Texas bordered on the east by the Balcones Fault zone and Blackland Prairie.
3. The Great Plains region extends into northern Texas, including the Llano Estacado and the Panhandle High Plains
4. The North Central Plains
5. The Trans-Pecos Desert, a subdivision of the Chihuahuan Desert, in extreme western Texas, west of the Pecos River

Geology

Texas is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Oriental 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. 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.

Government and politics

State Law and Government

Austin is the capital of Texas. The State Capitol resembles the federal Capitol Building in Washington, DC, but is faced in pink granite and is topped by a statue of the "Goddess of Liberty" holding aloft a five-point Texas star. Like several other southern state capitols, it faces south instead of north. The capitol building is seven feet taller than the U.S. national capitol, but it is less massive.

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: 21 Republicans and 11 Democrats.

The Texas Constitution, adopted in 1876, is the second longest in the nation. 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.

The executive branch consists of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Land Commissioner, Attorney General, Agriculture Commissioner, the three-member Railroad Commission, the State Board of Education, and the Secretary of State. The Comptroller decides if expected state income is sufficient to cover the propsed 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. There are also a large number of state agencies and numerous boards and commissions. Partly because of the large number of 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. He or she also appoints members of various executive boards and fills judicial vacancies between elections.

The Legislature of Texas, like the legislature of every other state except Nebraska, is bicameral (that is, 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 judicial system of Texas has a reputation as one of the most complex in the United States—if not in the world—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.

County Government

Texas has a total of 254 counties, by far the most counties of any state. Each county is run by a "commissioners court" consisting of four elected commissioners (one from each of four precincts drawn based on population) and a "county judge" elected from all the voters of the county. The county judge does not have authority to veto a decision of the commissioners court, s/he votes along with the commissioners. In smaller counties, the county judge actually does perform judicial duties, but in larger counties the judge's role is limited to serving on the commissioners court. Certain officials such as the sheriff and tax collector are elected separately by the voters and state law specifies their salaries, but the commissioners court determines their office budgets. Counties also have much less legal power than municipalities, for instance, counties in Texas do not have zoning power or eminent domain power (except in very rare circumstances).

Municipal Government

Texas does not have townships; areas within a county are either "incorporated" (i.e., part of a city, though the city may contract with the county for needed services) or "unincorporated" (i.e., 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 (i.e., 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. One example of the difference in the two structures regards annexation. General law cities cannot annex adjacent unincorporated areas without the property owner's consent; home rule cities may annex without consent, but must provide essential services within a specified period of time or the property owner may file suit to be deannexed.

School and Special Districts

In addition to cities and counties, Texas has numerous "special districts". The most common is the independent school district, which (with one exception) has a board of trustees that is independent of any other governing authority. School district boundaries are not coaligned with city or county boundaries; it is not uncommon for a school district to cover one or more counties or for a large city to be served by several school districts.

Other special districts include water supply, public hospitals, and community colleges.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Texas

Texas politics are currently dominated by the Republican Party, which has strong majorities in the Texas Senate and House of Representatives. 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. A notable exception to this trend is the Travis County District Attorney, Ronnie Earle, a Democrat elected by the people of Austin who has served since 1978 with state-wide authority and responsibility for legally prosecuting political mischief. The position of Travis County DA is uniquely so-empowered by the Texas Constitution; most states grant this authority to the more broadly elected position of Attorney General. Note: the congressional districts in Texas were redrawn in 2003 by the Republican-dominated legislature. Districts are supposed to be drawn after the national census every 10 years, but an impasse in the Texas Legislature resulted in the districts being drawn by the courts. 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 of the change was upheld by the Republican-dominated Texas Supreme Court.

Like other 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. One of the most famous Texans was a Democrat: Lyndon Baines Johnson served in the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and as vice-president and president of the United States.

Texas Congressional Districts in the U.S. House of Representatives
Districts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
See also: List of counties in Texas

Economy

Texas remained largely rural until World War II, with cattle ranching, oil, and agriculture as its main industries. Contrary to popular mythology, cattle ranching was never Texas's chief industry. Before the oil boom, back to the period of the first anglo settlers, this 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 industralized.

Its economy (circa 2000) relies largely on information technology, oil and natural gas, energy exploration and energy trading, agriculture, and manufacturing. The state has two major economic centers: the Greater Houston area and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Houston stands at the center of the petrochemical and biomedical research trades while Dallas functions as the center of the agricultural and information technology labor market in Texas. Other major cities include San Antonio, Austin, Brownsville, Lubbock, Amarillo, Abilene, Beaumont, McAllen, Tyler, Odessa and Midland. Other important cities include Killeen, home to Fort Hood the largest military Post in the U.S., El Paso, Eagle Pass, and Laredo; these have particular significance due to their location on the border with Mexico, making them important trade points.

The state passed New York in the 1990s to become the second-largest U.S. state in population (after California). In 2001 Texas had a gross state product of $764 billion. 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 areas such as San Francisco), the lack of a personal state income tax, low taxation of business, limited government (the state legislature of Texas meets only once every two years), and favorable climate.

Film and television

Texas is one of the top filmmaking states in the United States, just after California and New York. More than $1.2 billion has been spent in Texas just for filming since 1990.

The Texas Film Commission was founded for free services to filmmakers, from location research to traveling.

Demographics

Historical populations
Census year	Population	Change	Percent Change
1850	212,592	-	-
1860	604,215	391,623	184%
1870	818,579	214,364	35%
1880	1,591,749	773,170	94%
1890	2,235,527	643,778	40%
1900	3,048,710	813,183	36%
1910	3,896,542	847,832	28%
1920	4,663,228	766,686	20%
1930	5,824,715	1,161,487	25%
1940	6,414,824	590,109	10%
1950	7,711,194	1,296,370	20%
1960	9,579,677	1,868,483	24%
1970	11,196,730	1,617,053	17%
1980	14,229,191	3,032,461	27%
1990	16,986,510	2,757,319	19%
2000	20,851,820	3,865,310	23%

The people of Texas, historically often known as Texians, are now generally referred to as Texans.

As of 2004, the state had a population of 22,490,022. The state has 3,450,500 foreign-born residents (15.6% of the state population), of which an estimated 1.2 million are illegal aliens (illegal aliens account for more than one-third of the foreign-born population in Texas and 5.4% of the total state population). The state's population grew 5.5 million between 1990 and 2004, a growth of 32.4%

Ethnic origins

More than one-third of Texas residents are of Hispanic origin and may be of any racial groups. Some are recent arrivals from Mexico, Central America, or South America, while others, known as Tejanos, have 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. Perhaps numerically Mexican-Texans dominate south, south-central, and west Texas and are a significant part of the work force of cities of Dallas and Houston.

Other population groups in Texas also exhibit great diversity. Frontier Texas saw settlements of Germans, particularly in Fredericksburg and New Braunfels. In fact, the largest family in Texas today is of German descent. 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. Texans of German descent dominate much of central and southeast-central Texas and one county in the area, Lavaca, is predominately Czech.

In recent years, the Asian population in Texas has grown, especially in Houston and in Dallas. People from mainland China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia India, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Pakistan and other countries have settled in Texas.

In August 2005, it was announced by the United States Census that Texas has become the fourth minority-majority state in the nation (after Hawaii, New Mexico, and California).[1] According to the Texas state Data Center, if current trends continue, Hispanics will become a majority in the state by 2030.

Demographics of Texas	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000
Total	22,490,022	22,103,374	21,723,220	21,334,855	20,851,790
White (Non-Hispanic)	10,986,937	11,049,172	11,094,951	11,138,076	11,190,222
	49.8%	50.4%	51.1%	51.8%	52.7%
Hispanic (of any race)	7,781,211	7,519,603	7,258,302	6,993,458	6,669,666
	34.6%	34.0%	33.4%	32.8%	32.0%
Black (Non-Hispanic)	2,535,285	2,500,125	2,463,047	2,426,088	2,378,444
	11.3%	11.3%	11.3%	11.4%	11.4%
Asian (Non-Hispanic)	695,293	666,261	636,223	604,846	567,526
	3.1%	3.0%	2.9%	2.8%	2.7%
Native American (Non-Hispanic)	77,662	76,071	74,538	72,762	70,405
	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%
Mixed/Other	210,349	203,238	196,159	188,529	178,812
	0.9%	0.9%	0.9%	0.9%	0.9%

All data comes from the United States Census state population estimates.[2]

The largest reported ancestry groups in Texas include: Mexican (24.3%), African American (11.5%), German (9.9%), American (7.2%), and Irish (7.2%).

Much of east, central, and north Texas is inhabited primarily by Texans of White Anglo Saxon Protestant heritage, primarily descended from the British Isles. African Americans, who historically made up one-third of the state population, are concentrated in those parts of East Texas where the ante-bellum cotton plantation culture was most prominent.

Census data reports 7.8% of Texas's population as under 5, 28.2% under 18, and 9.9% over 64 years. Females made up 50.4% of the population.

See List of Protestantism by US State

Cities and metropolitan areas

Largest cities

San Antonio

Austin

Texas has two global cities as Houston and Dallas hold the title of "Gamma World City" by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC).

Ranked by population of cities (incorporated municipalities), the five largest cities in Texas are Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and Fort Worth. Photographs of the downtowns of those five cities are displayed to the right, in order of each city's population according to 2004 U.S. Census estimates within city limits. Texas is the only state to have three cities with populations exceeding 1 million (California has two, no other state has more than one)--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 US cities.

Some cities not listed are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics.

Texas rank	U.S. rank	City	Population	Region
1	4	Houston	2,012,626	Southeast Texas
2	8	San Antonio	1,236,249	Central Texas
3	9	Dallas	1,210,393	North Texas
4	16	Austin	681,804	Central Texas
5	19	Fort Worth	603,337	North Texas

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. In 2003, the U.S. Census introduced "metropolitan divisions" within some metropolitan areas. Texas has two metropolitan divisions within the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington MSA.

The following table lists population figures for those metropolitan areas, in rank of population. Population figures are as of the 2003 U.S. Census estimates.

Rank	Metropolitan Area	Metropolitan Division	Population
1	Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington		5,589,670
		Dallas–Plano–Garland–Irving	3,739,509
		Fort Worth–Arlington	1,850,161
2	Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown		5,075,733
3	San Antonio		1,820,719
4	Austin–Round Rock		1,377,633
5	El Paso		705,436
6	McAllen–Edinburg–Mission		635,540
7	Corpus Christi		406,830
8	Beaumont–Port Arthur		382,629
9	Brownsville–Harlingen		363,092
10	Killeen–Temple		343,329
11	Lubbock		257,188
12	Odessa–Midland		241,316
13	Amarillo–Canyon		233,231
14	Waco		219,807
15	Laredo		213,615
16	Longview–Marshall		198,155
17	College Station–Bryan		192,603
18	Tyler		184,015
19	Abilene		158,488
20	Wichita Falls		149,653
21	Texarkana		131,591
22	Sherman–Denison		115,153
23	Victoria		112,965
24	San Angelo		105,270

Education and scientific research

Public schools

The public school systems are administered by the Texas Education Agency.

All but one of the school districts in Texas are separate from any form of municipal government, hence they are called "independent school districts," or "ISD" for short. School districts may cross city and county boundaries. School districts have the power to tax their residents and to use eminent domain.

The sole exception to this rule is Stafford Municipal School District, which serves all of the city of Stafford.

Texas has twenty Educational Service Center "regions" that serve the local school districts.

Colleges and universities

The University of Texas System, established by the Texas Constitution in 1876, consisted of nine academic universities, six health institutions, and UT System administration in 2004. UT System institutions enrolled a total of 182,752 students in fall 2004 making it one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation. In 2004, The University of Texas at Austin, which is the largest institution in the UT System and in the state of Texas, maintained an enrollment of 50,377 students. The University of Texas at Austin was once the largest institution in the United States, but it is now one of the top 3 largest by population and is the world's 15th top ranking university [3]. Seven doctoral programs at UT Austin rank in the top 10 in the nation and 22 degree programs rank in the top 25, according to a comprehensive study of the quality of graduate schools conducted by the United States National Research Council. Four of the seven medical schools of Texas are within the University of Texas System. In 2004, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas was ranked the 16th highest ranking medical school in the United States, with four of Texas' eleven Nobel laureates. [4]

The Texas A&M University System is the second largest state university system of higher learning in Texas. Its flagship institution is Texas A&M University located in College Station and is the state's oldest public institution of higher education. Funded research generally exceeds that of all other Texas universities, and Texas A&M ranks among the top ten national universities in research. It is the second largest university in the state of Texas and also one of the top 10 largest schools in the nation.

The University of Houston System is the largest urban state system of higher education in the Gulf Coast, which has four universities with three located in Houston. Its flagship institution is the University of Houston, the only doctoral degree granting extensive research institution in Houston and is the third largest in the state of Texas with an enrollment of over 36,000. The interdisciplinary research conducted at UH breaks new ground in such vital areas as superconductivity, space commercialization, biomedical engineering, economics, education, petroleum exploration and management. UH is also home to over 40 research centers and institutes. Amongst the most prestigious of the University of Houston's colleges is the University of Houston Law Center (law school). The UH Law Center's Health Law and Policy Institute is ranked number one in the nation while the Intellectual Property Law Program is ranked fifth, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Houston is home to the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions, such as Baylor College of Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, which now ranks as one of the world's most productive and highly regarded academic institutions devoted to cancer patient care, research, education, and prevention.

Houston is the location of a well known prestigious private institution of Rice University, which boasts one of the largest financial endowments of any university in the world. The small undergraduate student body is among the nation's most select and one of the highest percentages of National Merit Scholarship winners. Rice University maintains a variety of research facilities and laboratories. Rice is also associated with the Houston Area Research Center, a consortium supported by Rice, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, and the University of Houston.

PUF

Transportation

Interstate highways

• Interstate 10
• Interstate 20
• Interstate 27
• Interstate 30
• Interstate 35
• Interstate 37
• Interstate 40
• Interstate 44
• Interstate 45
• Interstate 69 (proposed extension)
• Interstate 410
• Interstate 610 (Texas)
• Interstate 635
• Interstate 820

United States highways

North-south routes	East-west routes
U.S. Highway 59 U.S. Highway 259 U.S. Highway 67 U.S. Highway 69 U.S. Highway 75 U.S. Highway 175 U.S. Highway 271 U.S. Highway 77 U.S. Highway 277 U.S. Highway 133 U.S. Highway 79 U.S. Highway 81 U.S. Highway 181 U.S. Highway 281 U.S. Highway 83 U.S. Highway 183 U.S. Highway 285 U.S. Highway 385 U.S. Highway 87 U.S. Highway 287 U.S. Highway 96 (north-south despite number)	U.S. Highway 54 U.S. Highway 57 (east-west despite number) U.S. Highway 60 U.S. Highway 62 U.S. Highway 70 U.S. Highway 66 (historic Route 66) U.S. Highway 80 U.S. Highway 180 U.S. Highway 380 U.S. Highway 82 U.S. Highway 84 U.S. Highway 90 U.S. Highway 190 U.S. Highway 290

Professional sports teams

National Football League Dallas Cowboys Houston Texans Arena Football League Austin Wranglers Dallas Desperados Arena Football League 2 Amarillo Dusters Rio Grande Valley Dorados National Indoor Football League Beaumont Drillers Corpus Christi Hammerheads Lubbock Gunslingers Odessa Roughnecks San Angelo Stampede Women's Professional Football League, Women's American football Dallas Diamonds Houston Energy Independent Women's Football League Dallas Revolution National Basketball Association Dallas Mavericks Houston Rockets San Antonio Spurs Women's National Basketball Association Houston Comets San Antonio Silver Stars National Hockey League Dallas Stars American Hockey League Houston Aeros San Antonio Rampage Central Hockey League Amarillo Gorillas Austin Ice Bats Corpus Christi Rayz Fort Worth Brahmas Laredo Bucks Lubbock Cotton Kings Odessa Jackalopes Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees

Major League Baseball Houston Astros Texas Rangers Pacific Coast League, Minor League Baseball Round Rock Express Texas League, Minor League Baseball Corpus Christi Hooks Frisco RoughRiders San Antonio Missions Midland RockHounds Central Baseball League, Minor League Baseball Amarillo Dillas (now defunct) Edinburg Roadrunners Fort Worth Cats Rio Grande Valley White Wings San Angelo Colts El Paso Diablos Major League Soccer F.C. Dallas Major Indoor Soccer League Dallas Sidekicks (now defunct)

The Houston Oilers, formerly based in Texas, moved to Memphis and later to Nashville, Tennessee, and became the Tennessee Titans. Houston also formerly had the Arena Football League team Houston Thunderbears, and the Minor League Soccer team Houston Hotshots.

Miscellaneous information

• Four ships of the United States Navy have borne the name USS Texas in honor of the state.
• Famous for their role in the history of Texas law enforcement, the Texas Rangers continue today to provide special law enforcement services to the state.
• One state holiday, Juneteenth (from "June" + "Nineteenth," its date), commemorates the day in 1865 that the slaves in Texas learned of the Emancipation Proclamation.
• At 311 feet, Texas's capitol building in Austin is taller than the capitol building in Washington, D.C.

State designations and symbols

• state flower — the bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis)
• state motto — "Friendship"
• state nickname — The Lone Star State (after the single star on several historical flags of Texas, including the current Texas flag [5])
• state tree — the pecan
• state bird — the mockingbird
• official state song — Texas Our Texas
• state mammals (three)
  • small — armadillo
  • large — Texas longhorn
  • flying — Mexican free-tailed bat

Other state designations

• Air Force — Commemorative Air Force (formerly known as the Confederate Air Force), based in Midland
• state dance — Square Dance
• state dinosaur — the Brachiosaur Sauropod, Pleurocoelus
• state dish — chili con carne
• state fiber and fabric — cotton
• state fish — Guadalupe bass
• state folk dance — square dance
• state fruit — Texas red grapefruit
• state gem — Texas blue topaz
• state gemstone cut — The Lone Star Cut [6]
• state grass — Sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula)
• state insect — monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)
• musical instrument — guitar
• state peppers (two)
  • native — chiltepin
  • other — jalapeño
• state plant — prickly pear cactus
• state reptile — Texas horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum), commonly called the "horny toad"
• state shell — lightning whelk (Busycon perversum pulleyi)
• state ship — the Battleship USS Texas (BB-35)
• state shrub — crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica)
• state slogan "It's like a whole other country", formerly was "Don't mess with Texas"
• state sport — rodeo
• state stone — petrified palmwood
• state tartan — Texas Bluebonnet Tartan
• state vegetable — Texas sweet onion

The pledge to the Texas Flag is:

Honor the Texas Flag

I pledge allegiance to thee Texas

one, and indivisible

See also

• Don't mess with Texas
• List of Texas-related topics
• List of Texans
• List of Texas county name etymologies
• List of Texas county seat name etymologies
• The size of Texas
• Wikitravel Entry

References

Further reading

• Gone to Texas : a History of the Lone Star State, Randolph B. Campbell, Oxford University Press, 2003, hardback, 500 pages.
• Imperial Texas: An Interpretive Essay in Cultural Geography, D. W. Meinig, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, 1969, hardback, 145 pages.
• Great River, The Rio Grande in North American History, Paul Horgan, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, reprint, 1977, in one hardback volume, ISBN 0-03-029305-7

External links

• About Texas - Many Texas subject area links from the Texas State Library
• The Handbook of Texas Online - Published by the Texas State Historical Association
  • Geology of Texas
  • Texas Indians
  • Texas Pre-History
• Texas Almanac - 2006-2007 Edition
• Texas Online - The Texas Government web portal.
• Texas Legislature Online
• Texas Child Support
• Comanche Lodge - A History Of The Comanche Indian People
• GenealogyBuff.com - Texas Genealogy Library of Files.
• The Portal to Texas History
• Interactive Texas Map
• Lone Star Junction, a Texas history resource
• Origin of state name and nickname
• State Department of Public Safety, Texas Ranger Division
• Texas Divorces Index 1968-2002 - Texas Divorces Index 1968-2002.
• Texas Map Collection
• Texas Marriages Index 1966-2002 - Texas Marriages Index 1966-2002.
• Texas News - A collection of news clippings and links related to Texas.
• Texas Obituary Links - A directory of obituary resources arranged by county.
• Texas Panhandle Plains - History Of Amarillo and the Southern Plains
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum
• Texas Register, hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries
• The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum website
• The Native Plant Society of Texas
• The Native Prairies Association of Texas
• Texan Nobel laureates
• Texas Newspapers
• Open Directory: Texas

	State of Texas ( Texas Topics | History | Republic of Texas | Politics | Texans )
Capital	Austin
Regions	Arklatex | Big Bend | Central Texas | Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex | Deep East Texas | East Texas | Edwards Plateau | Greater Houston | North Texas | Northeast Texas | Piney Woods | Rio Grande Valley | Texas Hill Country | Texas Panhandle | Llano Estacado | Southeast Texas | South Texas | West Texas See also: Texas Counties
Metropolitan areas	Abilene | Amarillo | Austin–Round Rock | Beaumont–Port Arthur | Brownsville–Harlingen | Bryan-College Station | Corpus Christi | Dallas–Plano–Irving | El Paso | Fort Worth–Arlington | Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown | Killeen–Temple | Laredo | Longview–Marshall | Lubbock | McAllen–Edinburg–Mission | Midland | Odessa | San Angelo | San Antonio | Sherman–Denison | Texarkana | Tyler | Victoria | Waco | Wichita Falls

Political divisions of the United States

States Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | Nevada | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico | New York | North Carolina | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Vermont | Virginia | Washington | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming Federal district District of Columbia Insular areas American Samoa | Baker Island | Guam | Howland Island | Jarvis Island | Johnston Atoll | Kingman Reef | Midway Atoll | Navassa Island | Northern Mariana Islands | Palmyra Atoll | Puerto Rico | Virgin Islands | Wake Island