State Name

The State name, Texas, is derived from a word in the Caddoan language of the Hasinai: taysha?, tecas, or tejas (the spanish spelling) meaning "those who are friends", "friends", or "allies".

Texas Motto:  Friendship

Texas State Flower: Bluebonnet

The Bluebonnet is also called buffalo clover, wolf flower and el conejo (the rabbit). The bluebonnet was adopted as the state flower, on request of the Society of Colonial Dames in Texas.

Texas State Tree: Pecan

The sentiment about the Pecan Tree that led to its official adoption probably grew out of the request of Texas Gov. James Stephen Hogg that a pecan tree be planted at his grave.

Texas State Bird: Mockingbird

It was adopted by the Legislature at the request of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs.

 Texas State Stone: Petrified Palmwood

It is most commonly found in the Toledo Bend area, left by trees that grew when the Gulf of Mexico's shoreline was much farther north than its present day location.

Texas State Molecule: Buckyball

The fullerenes are a recently discovered family of carbon allotropes named after Buckminster Fuller.  Sperichal fullerenes are sometimes called buckyballs.

Inarguably Texas' single most recognizable historical site, The Alamo, is actually a church called The Mission San Antonio de Valero. The Alamo was the name for the walled town that once surrounded the church and was so named for a grove of cottonwood trees nearby; Alamo is the Spanish word for cottonwood. The Mission has been used for a number of things, including San Antonio's first hospital from 1806 - 1812. In 1903 Clara Driscoll purchased the property to keep it from being torn down and funded extensive restoration earning her the title "Savior of The Alamo".

How Oscar got his name

 Each year winners leave from the Academy Awards with a shiny gold statue called "Oscar" that was named after Texan, Oscar Pierce. Pierce had a niece who worked for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood. When she saw the gold statue for the first time she claimed it looked like her Uncle Oscar, and so it was named.

The Lone Star flag was approved in 1839 and designed by Johanna Troutman.  The colors in the Texas flag have special significances:  Red for courage & bravery, White for liberty & purity, Blue for loyalty.  When Texas was annexed in 1845 it retained the right to fly its' flag at the same height as the national flag.

JUDGE ROY BEAN

"Law West of The Pecos" in Langtry, Texas

"Hear ye! Hear ye! This honorable court is now in session and if any galoot wants a snort before we start, step up to the bar and name your poison.  It is the findin' of this court that you are charged with a grave offense against the peace and dignity of the law West of the Pecos and the State of Texas".  The gavel ( most often the butt-end of a six shooter acquired as a fine from a previous lawbreaker) smacked the bar of the Jersey Lilly saloon, billiard hall and courtroom, and another case was settled according to Judge Roy Bean, the "Law West of the Pecos."

Judge Bean was appointed to the position August 2, 1882 to serve as Justice of the Peace for Precinct 6 (then Pecos, now Val Verde County) on the hunch it might be doubly profitable to preside over both the barroom and the bar of justice.  Roy Bean's dispensation of law wasn't complicated by legalities.  His rulings were based upon his single law book, the 1879 Revised Statutes of Texas, greed, predjudice and a little common sense (when not clouded by whiskey, as Roy was often his own best customer).

Some legends cite Bean as a hanging judge,( although no record exists to support this claim, he did "stage" hangings to scare criminals, allowing them to escape later)  but in truth, one of the harshest sentences in this desolate wilderness was expulsion.  The hazards of getting to another place of "civilization" afoot, with no money or weapons were enough to convince even the toughest outlaw of the error of his ways.

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