The Texas almanac, short edition
40 Texas facts, each one with its source
Every fact on this page links to where we found it, mostly the Handbook of Texas, state agencies and the Census Bureau. You will also find a fact about the town on 84 city pages in the directory.
Land
Texas covers 268,596 square miles, and 261,232 of them are land, by the Census Bureau's 2010 state area measurements.
Source U.S. Census Bureau
Texas had 254 counties in 2022, and 11 of them more than doubled in population from 2000 to 2022.
Source U.S. Census Bureau
Brewster County is the largest county in Texas and is home to Big Bend National Park.
Source Handbook of Texas
The Texas coast has 367 miles of beaches and more than 3,300 miles of bays and estuaries, says the General Land Office.
Source Texas General Land Office
Guadalupe Peak is the highest natural point in Texas at 8,751 feet above sea level.
Source National Park Service
Palo Duro Canyon is about 120 miles long, 20 miles wide and up to 800 feet deep, the second largest canyon system in the country.
Enchanted Rock in the Hill Country is a 425 foot pink granite dome that is an International Dark Sky Park.
The Rio Grande ran 1,896 miles from Colorado to the Gulf in the late 1980s, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission.
Source Handbook of Texas
Records
Rockwall County is the smallest county in Texas at 147 square miles.
Source Handbook of Texas
The Texas Capitol is 14.64 feet taller than the U.S. Capitol, at 302.64 feet to the tip of the Goddess of Liberty's star.
The bluebonnet was chosen as the official state flower in 1901, which started the state's symbol list.
The Texas Almanac was named the official state book in 2025.
History
The flags of six nations have flown over Texas, Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederacy and the United States.
The Texas Declaration of Independence was presented to the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836.
Source Handbook of Texas
The siege of the Alamo lasted thirteen days and ended on March 6, 1836.
Source Handbook of Texas
Texas legally entered the Union on December 29, 1845, when Congress accepted its state constitution.
Source Handbook of Texas
In 1823 Stephen F. Austin hired ten frontiersmen as Rangers, and lawmakers created the Texas Rangers force on November 24, 1835.
Source Handbook of Texas
In 1876 a barbed wire fence held back a herd of longhorns in a famous demonstration on Alamo Plaza in San Antonio.
Source Handbook of Texas
The Texas Capitol is built with red granite from Granite Mountain near Marble Falls, which its owners offered to give the state.
Source Handbook of Texas
Alibates flint was used for at least 13,000 years by many tribes for stone tools, spearpoints and arrowheads.
Source National Park Service
Mission Concepcion in San Antonio is the nation's oldest unrestored stone church, says the Park Service.
Source National Park Service
Work
Spindletop near Beaumont came in on January 10, 1901, and the Lucas gusher flowed an estimated 100,000 barrels a day.
Source Handbook of Texas
Texas produced 42.5 percent of all U.S. crude oil in 2022, the largest share of any state.
The King Ranch covers 825,000 acres, nearly 1,300 square miles, which is larger than Rhode Island.
Source Handbook of Texas
People
Texas had 30,029,572 residents in 2022, second only to California, says the Census Bureau.
Source U.S. Census Bureau
Western swing is the official state music of Texas, and the domino game 42 is the state domino game, both named in 2011.
The cowboy boot became the state footwear in 2007, and the cowboy hat became the state hat in 2015.
The State Fair of Texas traces back to the Dallas State Fair chartered on January 30, 1886, and Big Tex first appeared in the 1950s.
Source Handbook of Texas
Wild
Big Bend National Park boasts more types of birds, bats, butterflies, ants, scorpions and cacti than any other national park, says the Park Service.
Source National Park Service
Big Thicket National Preserve in southeast Texas has nine different ecosystems, from longleaf pine forests to cypress lined bayous.
Source National Park Service
Guadalupe Mountains National Park protects the world's most extensive Permian fossil reef and the four highest peaks in Texas.
Source National Park Service
Padre Island National Seashore protects sixty-six miles of wild coastline and one of the last intact coastal prairie habitats in the country.
Source National Park Service
Texas made the Mexican free-tailed bat its official flying mammal in 1995, the same year it picked the armadillo as its small mammal.
At Dinosaur Valley State Park near Fort Worth you can walk in dinosaur tracks in the bed of the Paluxy River.
Table
Chili became the official state dish of Texas in 1977.
Texas red grapefruit became the state fruit in 1993.
Tortilla chips and salsa became the official state snack of Texas in 2003.
In 2005 Texas named pan de campo its state bread and the cast iron Dutch oven its state cooking implement.
In 2013 Texas named pecan pie its state pie and peach cobbler its state cobbler.
The jalapeno became the state pepper in 1995, and the chiltepin is the state native pepper, named in 1997.
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