Portal:Texas

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Texas is a state in the South and Southwest regions of the United States of America. With an area of 268,581 square miles (695,622 km²) and a population of 22.8 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. The state name derives from a word in a Caddoan language of the Hasinai, táyshaʔ, tecas (or tejas, as the Spaniards spelled it), meaning "those who are friends," friends or allies.

Texas joined the United States in 1845 as the 28th state, after nearly a decade of being the Republic of Texas—an independent country. Texas historically had a "larger than life" reputation, especially in cowboy films. The term "Texas sized" is used to describe something larger than average, and large geographic areas are often described in terms of the size of Texas. It is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico. It is in the south-central part of the United States of America. It is considered to form part of the U.S. South and also part of the U.S. Southwest.

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In 2005 Texas had a gross state product of $982.4 billion, the second highest in the U.S. after California. Texas is the only state in the U.S. to have three cities with populations exceeding one million: Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas; which are also among the 10 largest cities of the United States. They are larger than any other cities in the Southern United States. Austin, El Paso, and Fort Worth are in the top 25 largest U.S. cities.

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The geography of Texas covers a wide and far reaching scope. Occupying about 7% of the total water and land area of the U.S., it is the second largest state after Alaska, and is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico. Texas is in the south-central part of the United States of America, and is considered to form part of the U.S. South and also part of the U.S. Southwest.

The Rio Grande, Red River and Sabine River all provide natural state lines where Texas borders Oklahoma on the north, Louisiana and Arkansas on the east, and New Mexico and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south. Austin, the state capitol is farther south than all other US state capitals except Honolulu.

By residents, the state is generally divided into North Texas, East Texas, Central Texas, South Texas, and West Texas, but according to the Texas Almanac, Texas has four major physical regions: Gulf Coastal Plains, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, and Basin and Range Province.

Selected biography

Michael Dell, square crop.jpg

Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965 in Houston, Texas) is the founder of Dell, Inc.. Dell is the son of an orthodontist and grew up in a well-to-do Jewish family. Dell attended Memorial High School in Houston, Texas, where he did not excel scholastically.

After graduating high school, he attended the University of Texas at Austin intending to become a physician. While at the university, he started a computer company called PCs Limited in his room in Dobie Center. The company became successful enough that, with the help of an additional loan from his grandparents, Dell dropped out of college at the age of 19 to run the business full-time.

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Dr Pepper Museum.jpg
Credit: User:Ichabod
Dr Pepper Museum in Waco, Texas. Damage inflicted by the 1953 Waco Tornado can be clearly seen in the newer, lighter bricks along the top-front quarter of the building.

Spotlight city

Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas within the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 332,969 (though a July 1, 2004 estimate placed the city's population at 359,467). Arlington is the seventh-largest city in the state and the fifty-first largest city in the United States.

Arlington is home to the Texas Rangers, Ameriquest Field in Arlington, the theme parks Six Flags Over Texas and Hurricane Harbor, future home to the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium, and is approximately 12 miles east of Fort Worth and 20 miles west of Dallas. It is coterminous with Kennedale, Grand Prairie, Mansfield and Fort Worth. The city also completely surrounds the smaller communities of Dalworthington Gardens and Pantego.

State symbols

Flower Bluebonnet Bluebonnets

Northern Mockingbird

Motto Friendship
Nickname The Lone Star State
Tree Pecan
Bird Mockingbird

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Flag of Texas.svg You are invited to participate in WikiProject Texas, a WikiProject dedicated to developing and improving articles about Texas.

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Eagle Point, Caprock Canyons State Park

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