Texas (Our Part of the world)

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My World Tuesday #1
Based in Ft. Worth, Texas

Today's Topic:
Where the Buffalo Roam and the Antelope Play
(Click on the photos for a full page view)

Plains Bison on the Prairie
5000 acre refuge of restored grasslands
Near Ft. Worth, "Where the West Begins"
Photo by Troy

Antelope Not at Play
Early Summer Morning Snack, Before the Heat of the Day
High Plains of West Texas
Photo by Martha

Over the coming months we will try to inform you of the many facets of our state,
from geography and geology to natural history,
with a special emphasis on photography of our state.

Please leave comments and tell us if you enjoy the post today,
and tell us if there is anything special you would like to see in the future.

Today: A few facts about Texas

Capital: Austin
Government: Bicameral Legislature
28th State to enter the Union:
Dec. 29, 1845
Present Constitution adopted: 1876

State motto: Friendship

Origin of name: Texas, or Tejas, was the Spanish pronunciation of a Caddo Indian word meaning "friends" or "allies."

Nickname: Texas is called the Lone Star State because of the design of the state flag: a broad vertical blue stripe at left centered by a single white star, and at right, horizontal bars of white (top) and red.


Population (Jan. 2006, State Data Center estimate) 23,507,783
Number of counties: 254
Number of incorporated cities: 1,208

The Natural Environment

Area (total): 268,581 sq. miles
Land area: 261,797 sq. miles
Water area: 6,784 sq. miles
Geographic center: About 15 miles northeast of Brady in northern McCulloch County.
Highest point: Guadalupe Peak (8,749 ft.) in Culberson County in far West Texas.
Lowest point: Gulf of Mexico (sea level).

For more information about the Natural Environment of Texas, Click here.


We hope you have enjoyed our small start of explaining and showing our small part of the world, and we look forward to your return. We sincerely hope you will bookmark us and return often.

Troy and Martha

Please visit "That's my World" for other great places of the Earth.





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'Buffalo' Calf

American Bison Calf

What person doesn’t like a baby animal? Especially a baby “Buffalo”.

Martha shot this with my 200mm macro lens. Yep, a 200mm macro lens makes a good telephoto if you have it on a Monopod.

American bison (Bison bison) with baby calf
(Click on the photo for a close look)

Ft. Worth Nature Refuge, May 14,2005
Photo by Martha.

The nature Refuge has over 25 miles of nature trails and 5000 acres for the buffalo. Yes the Nature trails are separate from the buffalo range.

The American bison (Bison bison) is a bovine mammal, also commonly known as the American buffalo. 'Buffalo' is something of a misnomer for this animal as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffaloes", the water buffalo and the African buffalo.

The bison originally inhabited the Great Plains of the United States and Canada in massive herds, ranging from the Great Slave Lake in Canada's far north to Mexico in the south, and from eastern Oregon almost to the Atlantic Ocean, taking its subspecies into account. Its two subspecies are the plains bison (Bison bison bison), distinguished by its smaller size and more rounded hump, and the wood bison (Bison bison athabascae), distinguished by its larger size and taller square hump. Wood bison are one of the largest species of cattle in the world, surpassed in size only by the massive Asian gaur and wild Asian water buffalo, both of which are found mainly in India and Southeast Asia.

See Wikipedia for the full article

Wood bison (Bison bison athabascae)
Notice the tall square hump
Photographed by Martha as we drove by
In timber country, British Columbia, Canada

Troy and Martha