Texas Almanac, 1982-1983 Page: 62
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62 TEXAS ALMANAC-1982-1983
feet in places. Almost the entire surface is a thin, Big Bend
limestone-based soil covered with a medium to thick South of the Davis Mountains lies the Big Bend
growth of cedar, small oak and mesquite with a vary- country, so called because it is encompassed on three
ing growth of prickly pear. Grass for cattle, weeds for sides by a great southward swing of the Rio Grande. It
sheep and tree foliage for the browsing goats, support is a mountainous country of scant rainfall and sparse
three industries-cattle, goat and sheep raising-upon population. Its principal mountains, the Chisos, rise to
which the area's economy depends. It is the nation's 7,835 feet in Mount Emory. Along the Rio Grande are
leading Angora goat and mohair producing region and the Santa Elena, Mariscal and Bouillas Canyons reach-
one of the nation's leading sheep and wool areas. A ing depths of nearly 2,000 feet. They are among the
few crops are grown. noteworthy canyons of the North American continent.
The Hill Country Because of its remarkable topography, and plant and
The Hill Country is a popular name for an area of animal life, the United States Government maintains
hills and spring-fed streams along the edge of the Bal- in the southern part of this region along the Rio
cones Escarpment. It is popular with tourists who visit Grande the Big Bend National Park with headquarters
th e dude ranches and other attractions. Notable large in a deep valley in the Chisos Mountains. It is a favor-
springs include Barton Springs at Austin, San Marcos ite recreation area.
Springs at San Marcos, Coma Springs at New Braun- Upper Rio Grande Valley
ftels, several springs at San Antonio, and a number of The Upper Rio Grande (El Paso) Valley is a nar-
others, row strip of irrigated land running down the river
The Burnet-Llano Basin from El Paso for a distance of 75 miles or more. In this
The Burnet-Llano Basin lies at the junction of the area are the historic towns and missions of Ysleta,
Colorado and Lano Rivers in Burnet and Llano Coun- Socorro and San Elizario, oldest in Texas. Cotton is the
ties. Earlier this was known as the "Central Mineral Re- chief product of the valley, much of it long-staple vari-
gion," because of the evidence there of a large num- ety. This limited area has a dense urban and rural
er of minerals, population in marked contrast to the territory sur-
On the Colorado River in this area a succession of rounding it. e s
dams impounds two large and four small reservoirs. Area of Texas
Uppermost is Lake Buchanan, one of the two large Texas occupies about 7 per cent of the total water
reservoirs, between Burnet and Llano Counties. Below and land area of the United States. Second in size
it in the western part of Travis County is Lake Travis. among the states, it has a lan and water area of 267,-
Between these two large reservoirs are three smaller 338 square miles as compared with Alaska's 586,412
ones, Inks, L. B. Johnson (formerly Granite Shoals) and square miles. California, third largest state, has 158,-
Marble Falls reservoirs, used primarily for maintain- 693 square miles. Texas is as large as all of New Eng-
ing heads to produce electric power from the overflow land, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois com-
from Lake Buchanan. Lake Austin is just above the bined.
City of Austin. Still another small lake is formed by a The state's area consists of 262,134 square miles of
low-water dam in Austin. land and 5,204 square miles of inland water, or 167,765,-
A name for this recreational area is the Highland 760 acres of land area and 3,330,560 acres of inland
Lakes Country. Geologically this is the most interesting water. New lakes since 1970 have increased the area of
area in Texas, some of the world's oldest rocks being inland water and decreased the land area.
found at the surface. LENGTH AND BREADTH
TRANS-PECOS TEXAS The longest straight-line distance in a general
The triangular "panhandle" of Texas west of the north-south direction is 801 miles from the northwest
Pecos River, bounded on the north by New Mexico and corner of the Panhandle to the extreme southern tip of
on the south by the Republic of Mexico, is distinctive Texas on the Rio Grande below Brownsville. The
in its physical and economic conditions. Traversed greatest east-west distance is 773 miles from the ex-
in is pysial nd eonoic ondtion. Tavesed treme eastward bend in the Sabine River in Newton
from north to south by an eastern range of the Rockies County to the extreme western Rive in to
it contains all of Texas' true mountains. bulge of the RioPecos Valley-Stockton Plateau
The eastern third of the Trans-Pecos is a rolling to
rough country lying in the valley of the Pecos River
and on the Stockton Plateau at the eastern base of the
Davis Mountains. With only 10 to 12 inches of rainfall
annually this was exclusively ranching country until
two decades ago when the discovery of great quanti-
ties of groundwater brought irrigation of cotton,
alfalfa and other crops.
Highest of the Trans-Pecos Mountains is the
Guadalupe Range which enters the state from New
Mexico. It comes to an abrupt end about 20 miles south
of the boundary line where are situated Guadalupe
Peak, (8,751 feet, highest in Texas) and El Capitan
(8,078 feet), which, because of perspective, appears to
the observer on the plain below to be higher than
Guadalupe and was for many years thought to be the
highest mountain in Texas. Lying just west of the
Guadalupe range and extending to the Hueco Moun-
tains a short distance east of El Paso is the Diablo Pla-
teau or basin. It has no drainage outlet to the sea. The
runoff from the scant rain that falls on its surface
drains into a series of salt lakes that lie just west of the
Guadalupe Mountains. These lakes are entirely dry
during periods of low rainfall exposing bottoms of
solid salt and for years they were a source of commer-
cial salt. Conflicting claims to this natural resource
caused the Salt War of the 1870s. (See index, "Salt
War.")
Davis Mountains
The Davis Mountains are principally in Jeff Davis
County. The highest peak, Mount Livermore, (8,382
feet) is one of the highest in Texas. There are a num-
ber of mountains more than 7,000 feet high. These
mountains intercept the moisture-bearing winds and
cause more precipitation than elsewhere in the Trans-
Pecos. They are greener with the growth of grass and
forest trees than the other Trans-Pecos mountains.
Noteworthy are the San Solomon Springs at the north-
ern base of these mountains.G.*anude luaove -i i-aso. ine geographic center of
Texas is southwest of Mercury in the northern portion
of McCulloch County.
LATITUDE, LONGITUDE-ELEVATION
The extremes of latitude and longitude are as fol-
lows: From Latitude 250 50' N. at the extreme southern
turn of the Rio Grande on the south line of Cameron
County to Latitude 36 30' N. along the north line of the
Panhandle, and from Longitude 93 31' W. at the ex-
treme eastern point on the Sabine River on the east
line of Newton County to Longitude 106 38' W. on the
extreme westward point on the Rio Grande above El
Paso.
In elevation the surface of the state varies from
sea level along the Gulf Coast to 8,751 feet at the sum-
mit of Guadalupe Mountain in Culberson County.
TEXAS BOUNDARY UNE
The boundary of Texas by segments, including
only larger river bends and only the great arc of the
coast line, is as follows:
Miles.
Rio Grande .......................... 889.0
Coast line.............................3 7.0
Coast line.... 890
Sabine River, Lake and Pass.............. 180.0
Sabine River to Red River ............... 106.5
Red R iver........................... 480.0
East Panhandle line .................... 133.6
North Panhandle line ................... 167.0
W est Panhandle line .................... 310.2
Along 32nd parallel..................... 209.0
Total ............................ 2,842.3
Following the smaller meanderings of the rivers
and the tidewater coast line, the following are the
boundary measurements:
R io G rande .......................... 1,248
Coast line (tidewater) ................... 624
Sabine River, Lake and Pass .............. 292
Red River ........................... 726
The five line segments given above......... 926
Total, including line segments given in
table above.......................... 3,816
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Texas Almanac, 1982-1983, book, 1981; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth113816/m1/64/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.