lower Rio Grande valley, the Coastal Prairies, the Pecos Valley, and the

Rio Grande Plain.

Livestock and related products usually account for more than half the

yearly farm income. Crops account for the rest. Texas leads nationally in

the number of cattle, horses, sheep, and lambs. Cattle ranks in value as

the most important commodity in almost every Texas county.

The state 's chief cash crop is cotton. Texas leads the nation in cotton

lint and cottonseed. The major producing counties are Gaines, Dawson,

Terry, Cameron, and Martin. Sorghum grain is usually second in value. Wheat

for grain is the third most valuable crop; the Panhandle is noted for its

wheat. Corn ranks fourth in value. Other farm products are milk, eggs,

chickens, hay, pigs, peanuts, rice, turkeys, wool, oats, and mohair. Texas

ranks among the first five states in the production of broomcorn, flaxseed,

grapefruit and oranges, pecans, sweet clover seed, sweet potatoes, carrots,

and onions.

Mining

The mineral resources of Texas yield an annual value of about 45 billion

dollars--more than that of any other state. Most of the income is derived

from petroleum, in which Texas leads the nation. The East Texas field is

one of the most productive in the world. Top producing counties in Texas

are Pecos, Yoakum, Gaines, Ector, and Gregg. Gregg was the first county to

produce more than 2 billion barrels of petroleum ever since records have

been kept.

The second and third most valuable minerals are natural gas and coal.

Pipelines carry natural gas, as well as petroleum, from Texas to all

sections of the country. Texas is one of the nation ' s chief sources of

helium, with much of the production centered at Amarillo, Exell, and Dumas.

Cement is fourth in importance. Texas ranks among the leading cement-

producing states. The Gulf Coastal Plain is one of the nation 's richest

sources of sulfur. Magnesium is processed from seawater at Freeport's

electrolytic plant. Among other minerals produced in the state are stone,

sand and gravel, lime, salt, and gypsum.

Transportation

Because of its huge size, Texas has had to develop a vast network of

transportation routes by road, rail, water, and air. The Texas Department

of Highways and Public Transportation, established in 1917, maintains about

71,000 miles (114,260 kilometers) of state roads.

In addition to the state roads and dozens of federal routes, a number of

highways in the Interstate system cross Texas. Interstates 10, 20, and 40

are major east-west routes. Crossing parts of Texas from north to south are

Interstates 35, 45, and 27. Interstate 30 runs northeastward from Dallas.

The first railroad in Texas was a 20-mile (32-kilometer) line in the

Houston area that was completed in 1853. Transcontinental service became a

reality in 1881, when the Southern Pacific linked the state with

California. Today Texas is served by a statewide network of railroads and

by a number of major airlines. The Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport is

the nation's largest in terms of land area and one of the busiest.

Thirteen deepwater ports handle shipments of petroleum products, cotton,

and wheat. Routes of travel are the Intracoastal Waterway (extending

eastward from Brownsville) and the Gulf of Mexico. The Houston Ship

Channel, which opened in 1915, has helped make that city one of the great

United States ports. The other major ports are Port Arthur, Beaumont, Texas

City, Corpus Christi, Port Aransas, and Galveston.

Recreation

In an average year Texas is visited by more than 40 million tourists. One

of the chief attractions is the rugged land of mountains and canyons in the

Trans-Pecos. This region includes Big Bend National Park and Guadalupe

Mountains National Park. Palo Duro Canyon cuts a 1,000-foot- (300-meter-)

deep slash through the high plains of the Texas Panhandle. The Gulf coast

has many fine beaches and resorts. Near Kingsville in south Texas is King

Ranch, one of the largest in the world. East Texas boasts more than 11

million acres (4.5 million hectares) of woodlands, including four national

forests.

San Antonio is famous for the Alamo and San Antonio Missions National

Historical Park. Dallas hosts the state fair each October and the Cotton

Bowl football game on New Year's Day. In Arlington are Six Flags Over

Texas, an amusement park styled after the American West, and the home

stadium of the Texas Rangers professional baseball team. In professional

football, the Dallas Cowboys play in Texas Stadium, in Irving, and the

Houston Oilers play in the famous Astrodome, also home of baseball's

Houston Astros. There are three Texas basketball teams: the Dallas

Mavericks, the Houston Rockets, and the San Antonio Spurs.

Education

The first schools in the Texas region were informal classes for Native

Americans held at the missions of Spanish priests. There were only a few

private schools in the area at the time of the Texas declaration of

independence in 1836. One of the republic's charges against Mexico was that

it had "failed to establish any public system of education."

In 1839 the Republic of Texas began setting aside public land for

education. An act establishing a state school system was passed in 1854. A

permanent school fund was established with a grant of 2 million dollars,

and provision was made for setting up school districts. In 1949 the Gilmer-

Aikin laws reorganized the public school system to equalize educational

opportunities. Common school districts were consolidated from more than

3,000 to fewer than 1,000.

The largest of the state schools is the University of Texas, located in

Austin, with branches at Arlington, Dallas, El Paso, Odessa, San Antonio,

and Tyler; health science centers at Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio;

cancer centers at Houston and Bastrop County; a health center at Tyler; and

a medical branch at Galveston. The divisions of the Texas A&M University

System are located at College Station, Prairie View, Stephenville, and

Galveston.

Some of the other state-supported institutions are Lamar University, at

Beaumont; Midwestern State University, at Wichita Falls; Pan American

University, at Edinburg; Texas Southern University, at Houston; the

University of Houston, also at Houston, with branches at Houston (Clear

Lake City, Downtown College branches) and Victoria; Texas Tech University,

at Lubbock; and Texas Woman's University, at Denton. Other large

institutions include Southern Methodist University, at Dallas; Texas

Christian University, at Fort Worth; Baylor University, at Waco; St. Mary's

University of San Antonio, at San Antonio; Abilene Christian University, at

Abilene; Trinity University, at San Antonio; Rice University, at Houston;

and Texas Wesleyan College, at Fort Worth.

Government and Politics

Under Mexican rule Texas was governed first from Saltillo and then from

Monclova (both in Mexico). In 1835-36 one or more governmental functions

were carried on at San Felipe de Austin, Washington on the Brazos,

Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco, and Columbia. Houston served as the capital

in 1837-39; Austin, in 1839-42; and Washington on the Brazos, in 1842-45.

Austin has remained the state capital since 1845. Texas is governed under

its fifth constitution, which was adopted in 1876.

The chief executive officer of the state is the governor, who is elected

every four years. The legislative branch consists of the Senate and the

House of Representatives. Heading the state judiciary is the Supreme Court

and Court of Criminal Appeals.

The Democratic party dominated Texas politics from the beginning of

statehood--with only occasional exceptions--until the 1970s. Sam Houston

was elected governor as an independent in 1859, and Republicans were

elected in 1870 and 1979. Likewise, in presidential elections Texas voted

Democratic in every election after the American Civil War until 1928 and

again until the 1950s. In recent years the Republican party has been

gaining strength. A Dallas oil-drilling contractor, William Clements, was

elected governor in 1978 and reelected in 1986--the first Republican to

head the state since Reconstruction.

John N. Garner of Uvalde was the nation's first vice-president from Texas

(1933-41). Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served from 1953 to 1961, was the

first Texas-born president. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson of Johnson

City became the second president from Texas on Nov. 22, 1963, after the

assassination of John F. Kennedy while riding in a Dallas motorcade. The

governor of Texas, John B. Connally, who was riding in the same car as

President Kennedy, was wounded. Johnson took the oath of office as

president immediately after Kennedy' s death; he was elected president in

1964. George Bush was a resident of Texas when he was elected vice-

president in 1980 and 1984 and when he was elected president in 1988.

Sam Rayburn of Bonham holds the record for length of service as speaker of

the United States House of Representatives--17 years, beginning in 1940.

One of the first African American women to serve in Congress, and the first

from the Deep South, was Barbara Jordan of Houston, first elected in 1972.

The wife of a former governor of Texas, who had been impeached, Miriam A.

Ferguson was the second American woman (by two weeks) to serve as a

governor (1925-27 and 1933-35). More than any other state, Texas has

elected women to high political offices in several of its cities. In the

1980s women were elected to the top post in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio,

Corpus Christi, and El Paso. In 1990 another woman, Ann Richards, was

narrowly elected governor of the state.

HISTORY OF TEXAS

Six national flags have flown over Texas during its colorful history. The

first was Spain's banner, from 1519 to 1685. In 1685 the French explorer La

Salle raised the French flag over a short-lived coastal colony. In 1691

Texas again came under the Spanish flag, which was replaced by the banner

of Mexico in 1821. From 1836 to 1845 the Lone Star banner flew over the

Republic of Texas. The Stars and Stripes became the official flag in 1845,

but during the American Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, it was replaced by

the Confederate flag.

The first European to visit what is now Texas was Alonso Alvarez de Pineda,

who mapped the coast in 1519. Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish noble, was the

first to explore the area. Shipwrecked near what is now Galveston in 1528,

he was captured by the Karankawa Indians and traveled with them for eight

years before escaping. In 1541 Francisco Coronado crossed the Panhandle in

search of gold. Later, parties of Spaniards camped in the wilderness, but

they left no settlements.

The French explorer La Salle missed the mouth of the Mississippi River in

1685 and sailed into Matagorda Bay. He pushed inland and built Fort St.

Louis, which two years later was wiped out by Native Americans already

living in the area. Fear of French influence hurried the Spanish into

extending missions into eastern Texas.

By 1800 some 25 missions and a number of presidios had been built in Texas.

The missions had little success in converting the Native Americans to the

alien Spanish culture and failed to attract settlers. A 1795 census found

69 families in San Antonio. The few additional families were mainly at what

are now Goliad and Nacogdoches.

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States regarded eastern

Texas as its territory. Spain refused to recognize the claim and won

control of about 96,000 square miles (248,639 square kilometers) through

the Adams-Onнs Treaty of 1819. After Mexico gained its independence from

Spain, this boundary (the Sabine River and northward) was confirmed by a

treaty with the United States.

The way to American settlement was opened when Moses Austin of Connecticut

won Spain's consent to settle 300 Anglo-American families in Texas. His

son, Stephen F. Austin, is called the father of Texas because he brought

the first group of colonists to the lower Brazos River in December 1821.

The capital of the settlement was established at San Felipe de Austin, in

present Austin County, in 1823.

Mexico made additional land grants to other settlers. Drawn by an abundance

of public lands where corn and cotton grew, whites from the South and

Southwest and their black slaves swelled the population. As immigration

into Texas from the United States increased, however, Mexico grew more

hostile. Resentment flared in 1826 when American promoters set up the short-

lived Fredonian republic at Nacogdoches. By 1830 the population of Texas

had grown to nearly 25,000, and further American immigration, including the

importation of African American slaves, was forbidden. Disputes with Mexico

increased. After Santa Anna became the dictator of Mexico, the Texans

revolted. The first open battle was fought at Gonzales on Oct. 2, 1835.

Republic of Texas

The Texans held a convention at Washington on the Brazos and adopted a

declaration of independence on March 2, 1836. A constitution modeled after

that of the United States was adopted by the new Republic of Texas.

The most striking event in the Texas war for independence was the heroic

defense of the Alamo in San Antonio. A rebuilt mission, the Alamo was used

as a fort by about 180 Americans. After a siege of 12 days by several

thousand Mexican soldiers under Santa Anna, the Alamo fell on March 6,

1836, and the garrison was wiped out. Later in the month the Mexicans

massacred James Fannin and more than 300 Texas prisoners at Goliad.

"Remember the Alamo" and "Remember Goliad" became Texas war cries.

Independence was won after Gen. Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna on the

banks of the San Jacinto River near Houston on April 21, 1836. In September

Sam Houston was elected president of the republic.

The new nation was hemmed in by the Indian frontier from the Red River to

the hostile Mexican border along the Rio Grande. These threats led to the

development of the famous Texas Rangers, expert horsemen and marksmen. The

Rangers, the oldest state police force in the United States, are now a

branch of the Department of Public Safety.

From 1836 to 1845 the public debt grew from 1 million to 8 million dollars.

Many believed that the future development of Texas would be greater under

the United States. In 1844 a convention voted for annexation and a state

constitution was adopted.

Admission to the Union

The proposed annexation brought a bitter fight in the United States over

the question of slavery. Finally, on Dec. 29, 1845, Texas was admitted to

the Union. The state kept its public lands and reserved the right to divide

into no more than five states.

Disputes with Mexico over boundary lines led to the Mexican War in 1846.

The United States victory in the conflict two years later established the

Rio Grande as the international border as far as El Paso. In 1850 Congress

purchased from Texas for 10 million dollars the claim of that state to some

100,000 square miles (259,000 square kilometers) of land, now part of New

Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Just before the outbreak of the American Civil War, slaveholding Texas

seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy. Governor Sam Houston

tried to keep the state in the Union but was deposed. Texas was readmitted

in 1870

In the mid-1860s Texas cowboys began driving cattle northward to markets or

ranges. Some of their famous cattle trails were the Chisholm, Western

(Dodge City), Goodnight-Loving, and Sedalia trails. More than 11 million

cattle were herded up these trails before the introduction of railroads

into the area. These cowboys were the inspiration for many dozens of

Western novels and films. Yet in spite of all the Western lore celebrating

the cowboy in song, story, art, and film, the era of the great cattle

drives was short. It was virtually over by 1890, only 20 years after it

began.

The Modern State

Much of the history of modern Texas is connected with the development of

the oil industry. In 1901 Anthony F. Lucas struck oil in the Spindletop

field, near Beaumont. Other great strikes included those of East Texas, the

richest of all, in 1930; Scurry County, in 1949; and Spraberry Field, near

Midland, in 1950. The state especially benefited from the expansion of the

industry, and its associated petrochemicals, after World War II. In 1960

Texas won a 15-year political and legal struggle for title to the offshore

oil in its Gulf of Mexico tidelands. A Supreme Court decision gave the

state mineral rights in an area extending three leagues--about 10 1/2 miles

(17 kilometers)--offshore.

In 1963 the United States ended a border dispute with Mexico by agreeing to

exchange land in the Laredo area. The dispute began about 100 years

earlier, when the channel of the Rio Grande shifted. HemisFair '68, the

first international exposition in a Southwestern state, was held at San

Antonio.

Massive oil spills from tankers have periodically devastated the Texas

shoreline. In October 1989 and, nine months later, in July 1990, there were

major fatal accidents at two Texas petrochemical plants within 10 miles (16

kilometers) of each other, near Houston.

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