Just how big is Texas?
From 1845 until 1959, Texas was by far the largest state in the Union. When Alaska was admitted, Texans had to endure a good deal of teasing for no longer being the biggest--which left Texans to counter that, at least, Texas was not frozen nine months of the year. Texas covers 268,581 square miles. Compared to other American states, it is about the same size as the sixteen smallest states combined. Or looking west, it is larger than Washington, Oregon, and Idaho combined (with Maryland left over). On an international scale, it is about twice the size of Germany. As nations go, if it were independent again it would rank 40th in size, after Chile (292,258 square miles) and Zambia (290,584), and ahead of Myanmar (formerly Burma, 261,228 square miles), Afghanistan (251,830 square miles), and Somalia (246,199 square miles).

What are Texas's dimensions?
Texas's extreme dimensions are north to south (from Dallam County in the upper northwest to Cameron County and Brownsville in the south), 790 miles. From east to west (from El Paso in the west to Newton County on the Louisiana border), it stretches 773 miles.

Where is Texas's geographical center?
The very center of the state is in McCulloch County, about fifteen miles northwest of the town of Brady: 437 miles west to the Rio Grande beyond El Paso; 412 miles northwest to the corner of the Panhandle; 401 miles south to the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville, and 341 miles east to the farthest bend of the Sabine River. The point was reckoned not by equal mileage to the state's extremities, but by dividing the state into equal areas, and the spot is noted by a marker on U.S. Highway 377, 2 miles south of Farm-to-Market Road 502.

How many counties does Texas have?
There are 254 counties in Texas, more than in any other state. They range in population from about 4.6 million in Harris County, which contains most of the city of Houston, down to 113 souls in Loving County, in the West Texas oil patch. The smallest in area is Rockwall County, near Dallas, at 127 square miles, to Brewster County in the Trans-Pecos, whose 6,192 square miles is larger than Connecticut.

What is the origin of the state's famous nickname?
The imagery of Texas as the Lone Star took hold during the Texas revolution for independence from Mexico in 1836, but no one knows for a certainty how it originated. There are a number of possibilities. One of the stronger contenders is this one: When Santa Anna canceled the Mexican constitution and assumed dictatorial powers, rebellions broke out in as many as eleven states. One of the most dangerous threats to him was the dual state of Coahuila y Tejas, and he sent an army to the state capital and broke up the legislature. Many Mexican federalists fled to Texas to continue the fight. The state's flag had been the Mexican tricolor with two stars, one each for its two components, Coahuila and Texas. After Coahuila fell, the Texas star was the only one left holding out the hope of a democratic government.

How did "Friendship" become the Texas motto?
Texans are famous for their hospitality, an ethic that became entrenched during frontier days, when traveling strangers often spent the night at roadside homes, and were not usually allowed to offer payment. That fits the motto, but it is not the origin. In 1690, the first Spanish mission was established near the later site of Nacogdoches, among the Tejas Indians, a name that meant "friend" or "ally." So, Texas actually does mean friend.

Does Texas have a state flower?
The legislature named the Texas bluebonnet as the state flower in 1901. Lupinus texensis is endemic to Texas, widely distributed, and became a cultural icon through the landscape paintings of Julian Onderdonk a century ago. Grayish-purple in dry years, but an electric violet-blue with good rainfall, vast acreages of central Texas are carpeted with them in spring, usually peaking in mid-April, interspersed with scarlet spikes of Indian Paintbrush and the pale wash of Pink Evening Primrose. The sight of whole vistas of them is unforgettable. Since the 1960s the Texas Highway Department has planted long stretches of right-of-way in bluebonnets and their associated species both for their beauty and their effectiveness in erosion control.

What are other state symbols?
The pecan became the Texas State Tree in 1919; the majestic trees over a hundred feet tall can live for centuries, and Texas has long led the nation in production of native pecans, now augmented with bred varieties. The mockingbird, noted both for its peerless singing and for its fierce defense of its nest, was named the Texas State Bird in 1927.

In more recent years, various lobbying groups and industrial councils have leaned on the legislature to proclaim a silly number of additional state "symbols:" a state stone (petrified palmwood, 1969), a state dish (chili con carne, 1977), a state reptile (horny toad, 1993), a state insect (monarch butterfly, 1995), a state plant (as opposed to tree or flower, prickly pear cactus, 1995), a state vegetable (sweet onion, 1997), a state snack (chips and salsa, 2003), a state dog breed (blue lacy, 2005), a state cobbler (peach, 2013), not to be outdone by a state pie (pecan, 2013).

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Excerpted from The Handy Texas Answer Book by James L. Haley
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.