BY NATHAN AND MACK

Wildlife The state’s large mammal is the Texas longhorn, the state’s small mammal is the armadillo. The flower is the blue bonnet and the state plant is the cactus.

Longhorn Often when you drive on the country side of Texas you see Texas longhorns. There were once millions of longhorns thundering across open grasslands. Cowboys drove the longhorns to markets. But, by 1927 there was only 1,500 longhorns left. Now there are more than 100,000. Longhorns are different  colors because of their bloodlines. They can be black, brown and white or a mixture of those colors. The Texas longhorn is a mix of 2 cattle, the Mexican cattle and the east USA cattle. The east USA cattle is shy and nice. The Mexican cattle is mean and is more of a bull for bull fighting.

TEXAS TRIVIA How big are the horns of a Texas longhorn? They can be up to 7 feet long!

TEXAS TRIVIA What famous drink was invented in Texas? Dr Pepper was first made in Waco Texas

TEXAS TRIVIA What famous chocolate candy is made in Texas? Snickers and 75% of all snickers are made in Texas

TEXAS TRIVIA What lake is the only natural lake in Texas? Caddo lake is the only natural lake in all of Texas.

TEXAS TRIVIA How big is the King Ranch in Texas? It is bigger than the state of Rhode Island.

TEXAS TRIVIA How big is Texas compared to Switzerland? Texas is 17x bigger than Switzerland!

TEXAS TRIVIA Which country has the most natural gas in the world? FRANCE JAPAN USA SWEDEN USA has the most natural gas. Texas has 23% of the natural gas in the United States of America.

Texas is big! It is the 2nd biggest state in America. It is about twice the size of Germany. If Texas were a country, it would be the 40th largest in the world! It takes about 10 hours to get from the eastern border of Texas to the western border of Texas in a car. Texas has the most counties of every state. The Amarillo airport has the 3rd largest runway in the world. The world’s largest parking lot is at DFW airport.

Texas borders Mexico, and the states of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. It is also next to the Gulf of Mexico.

How long does it take? It takes 11 hours to drive from Houston to Atlanta in a car. In a plane it takes 2 hours and 15 minutes. You have to drive or fly through Louisiane, Mississipi, Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Atlanta is where most of our family lives.

The biggest city is Houston and the capital is Austin. The area of Texas is 268,581 mi 2 The biggest city is Houston and the capital is Austin.

Did You Know? On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated during a motorcade through downtown Dallas. Texas is also known as the helium country. Texas is home to Dell and Compaq computers.

WEATHER In Texas it is mostly hot in the summer. The winters are mild. Some of the northern part of Texas is in tornado alley.

FOOD Texans love barbeques and chili. Some people believe that cowboys mushed beef fat and dried beef with chili pepper and salt to make trail food and later boil it into chili. It has been influenced by Germany Mexico and Italy.

Sport Texas has lots of sport teams for example in football they have the Dallas Cowboys and in baseball they have the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros. The most popular sport is the rodeo. Most of the events in the rodeo involve a horse or a cow. Men and woman do different things in the rodeo like woman usually do trick riding on horses and men ride cows.

HISTORY Texas was not always part of the USA. The region that is now Texas was early known to the Spanish, who were, however, slow to settle there. It was then ruled by Mexico but they fought a war against Mexico and after a year of fighting Texas won and became independent. Ten years later it joined the USA.

The Alamo The Alamo was a 13 day battle in 1836 that was part of the war that Texas fought against Mexico to be an independent state. All of the Texas soldiers (and Davy Crockett)defending the Alamo fort died but it inspired many more Texans to join the army. Later that year Sam Houston led the battle of San Jacinto to defeat Mexico and their general Santa Anna and win the Texas Revolution and their independence.

GOVERNMENT Rick Perry is the current governor of Texas. He is the 47th governor of Texas and longest serving in Texas state history from 2000 to 2014. He decided not to seek re election in 2014.

GOVERNMENT The new governor will be Greg Abbott. He is the first governor since 1982 to be in a wheelchair.

This is the Texas flag

The nick name of Texas is The Lone Star State Texas Seal The Texas seal has acorn branch with acorns and a olive branch with olives. The nick name of Texas is The Lone Star State

Top Things to do in Texas Riverwalk in San Antonio – shopping and restaurants along banks of San Antonio River Houston NASA space center – space center museum Dallas world aquarium

Top Things to do in Texas THE WAR The Alamo – landmark of the famous battle of the Alamo

Top Things to do in Texas Schlitterbahn-water park Padre island - island Six flags – amusement park

Conclusion

sources Texas longhorn / animals in U.S history / Lynn M. Stone Whether channel web http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/texas.html http://awesomeamerica.com/texas/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2013/08/07/texas-oil-and-gas-numbers-fly-off-the-charts/ http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/company/multimedia/energy-lives-here/quiz http://mapfight.appspot.com/texas-vs-ch/texas-switzerland-size-comparison