Collection of Insane and Fun Facts
In 2005, Houston was struck by Hurricane Rita, which resulted in 3.7m people evacuating the area. The evacuation caused a traffic jam that spanned 100 miles, lasted days, and killed dozens of people. Hurricane Rita then ended up changing course and only dealt Houston a glancing blow.
During the 2000 US census, more than 87,000 Americans listed their home state as their ancestry. Texas had the most, with over 32,000.
The Texas Dept. of Transporttion (TxDOT) buys and sows about 30,000 pounds of wildflower seed (including Bluebonnet) each year. The peak wildflower blooming season draws tourists from all across the nation to see the colorful blooms each spring.
Jesse James, the Old American Outlaw, refused to rob a bank in McKinney, Texas because his favorite chili parlor was in town.
A Texas school district is so small that one person “has been the superintendent, the principal, the third-to-sixth-grade teacher, the ESL instructor, the special-ed teacher, the repairman, the contractor”. Divine, Texas (about 20 students)’s school bus is a used white limousine.
In Texas, prison inmates have to pay $100 a year out of their personal account to see a doctor for a sickness that is not an emergency or a chronic illness. If they don’t have the money, half of all future funds deposited into their account are put towards the debt.
The Republic of Texas had its own embassy-like building in London. When it joined the rest of the United States in 1845, the officials skipped town without paying their rent.
Lake Jackson, TX has streets named This Way, That Way, Any Way, Circle Way, Parking Way, Winding Way, His Way, and Which Way.
There is a small town outside Fort Worth, TX named White Settlement. In 2005, a record number of voters turned out to oppose changing the name to something less racist-sounding and then proceeded to call for the mayor’s resignation for even proposing the change.