Texas Geography
Lesson 1-3
I. Absolute Location Affects Climate
A. Texas’s mild winters, which occur because of its absolute location in the middle latitudes, attract
many vacationers.
B. Texas has unpredictable weather, including tornadoes, hurricanes, and dust storms.
C. Periods of harsh winter conditions are caused by frigid northers that sweep from Canada across
the plains, uninterrupted by any mountains.
D. Texas is the meeting place of cool, northern air and warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico,
creating violent, destructive storms.
II. Relative Location Also Affects Climate
A. The location of Texas relative to the Gulf of Mexico has a major influence on climate as warm,
moist winds move inland from the south, cooling the land in summer and warming it in winter.
B. The Gulf of Mexico is also the source of most of the rain that falls in Texas.
C. The location of West Texas relative to the deserts and mountains of Mexico accounts for its dry air
and little rainfall.
D. Areas in the Panhandle and across the middle of the state, such as the Dallas-Fort Worth area, are
far from the influence of the Gulf of Mexico and experience broiling heat in summer and frigid
temperatures in winter.
III. Elevation and Climate Patterns
A. El Paso’s high elevation keeps the city from being the hottest area in Texas because temperatures
are cooler at higher elevations.
B. The hottest temperatures in Texas occur at lower elevations.
C. The mountainous regions of West Texas receive more rainfall than the surrounding desert because
moisture-filled air moving up the mountains cools, and some of the moisture falls as rain.
Did you know
The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States for total tonnage from foreign countries, and second for
total tonnage overall. In 2000 the port handled 175 million short tons of cargo, mostly petroleum and
petroleum products.
Texas’s Regions
Lesson 2-1
I. The Most Populated Region - The Gulf Coast Plain
A. The most populated natural region of Texas is the Coastal Plains.
B. Major cities include Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston.
C. The Coastal Plains have many natural resources, including pine forests.
D. Processing oil and oil products is a major industry, especially along the coast.
E. The seaports of Houston, Galveston, and Corpus Christi are connected by roads, railroads,
pipelines, and airlines.
F. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway links Texas to the southeastern United States and to the world.
II. The Piney Woods
A. Four national pine forests cover much of the land.
B. Lumbering is a very important economic activity.
C. Farming is also important in the region, which has a long growing season.
III. The Gulf Coast Plain
A. Cattle raising is the most important agricultural activity of the region.
B. Farmers grow a variety of crops, including rice, cotton, and grain sorghum.
C. Numerous petrochemical industries are located in the area from Corpus Christi through Houston,
Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange.
D. Houston’s Johnson Space Center trains U.S. astronauts and has spurred the development of
scientific industries.
E. A large petrochemical industry also thrives in another major port on the Gulf of Mexico, Corpus
Christi, which is an important fishing center and the home port city for the United States Navy.
IV. The Post Oak Belt
A. Post oaks and many other hardwood trees thrive in this region.
B. Farms produce corn, grains, cotton, peanuts, pecans, hay, watermelon, peaches, and livestock.
C. The largest city in this region, Tyler, calls itself the “Rose Capital of the World” because of the
thousands of rosebushes it produces.
V. The Blackland Prairie
A. The densely settled region includes many of the state’s larger cities and towns that have
substantial manufacturing facilities.
B. Fertile soil and a long growing season produce a variety of crops.
C. Cotton remains dominant in the high plains around Lubbock.
D. Dallas, the largest city in the region, is an important financial and high-tech center.
E. San Antonio, the third-largest city in Texas, is an important tourism center and a hub of Mexican
American culture.
F. Austin, which is the state’s capital and home to the University of Texas, has experienced rapid
growth in recent decades.
G. Austin has attracted many high-tech companies and is a world renown center for musical groups.
VI. The South Texas Plain
A. The region is much drier than the Gulf Coast Plain.
B. Water from wells and streams and a ten-month growing season make the area an important
agricultural region.
C. The southernmost part of the region, known as the Lower Rio Grande Valley, contains rich soil
from Rio Grande alluvial deposits.
D. The famous King Ranch is a center for oil, gas, and ranching and farming.
Lesson 2-2
I. A Ranching and Farming Region - The North Central Plains
A. The Balcones Escarpment and Caprock Escarpment separate this region from the rest of Texas.
B. Much of the land is covered with grasses that support cattle ranches.
C. Fort Worth, the region’s largest city, was once a marketing center for cattle but is now a
manufacturing center for planes, computers, and clothing.
D. Abilene and San Angelo are marketing centers for wool and mohair.
II. The Cross Timbers
A. The area is home to oaks, hickories, pecans, and elms; it is mostly an agricultural region, producing
fruits, vegetables, and Spanish peanuts.
B. Important cities include Arlington, a leader in manufacturing; Denton, known for the University of
North Texas and Texas Woman’s University; and Brownwood, an important center of regional trade
and distribution.
III. The Grand Prairie
A. Limestone underlying the region does not hold rainwater for long, so the soil supports mainly
grasses and shrubs; trees grow primarily along streams.
B. Farming and cattle raising are the most important economic activities.
C. Fort Worth and Dallas are the main cities of a 20-county area known as the Metroplex.
D. Fort Hood, one of the nation’s largest military installations, is in Grand Prairie.
IV. The Rolling Plains
A. The largest section within the region, the Rolling Plains support sprawling cattle ranches.
B. Sheep and goats are raised in the drier western parts, which have poorer vegetation.
C. Wichita Falls, one of the larger communities, is home to a United States Air Force base and
Midwestern State University.
D. Abilene is an important oil services and marketing center and has three church-related
universities.
E. San Angelo, a major agribusiness center, is the largest wool-producing market in the United States.
Lesson 2-3
I. The Real “Old West” - The Great Plains
A. The Great Plains run east of the Rocky Mountains through Texas and into Mexico.
B. The Caprock Escarpment divides the Great Plains.
C. The Great Plains were once home to immense herds of buffalo.
D. Droughts are frequent, but irrigation from underground water sources and new farming
techniques make agriculture possible.
E. Three geological subsections lie within the Great Plains—the Edwards Plateau, the Llano Basin,
and the High Plains.
II. The Edwards Plateau
A. The economy is largely based on cattle, goat, and sheep raising.
B. Most of the Angora goats in the United States are found within 100 miles of the center of the
Edwards Plateau, making the region among the nation’s most important for wool production.
C. The Hill Country attracts many visitors to dude ranches and is home to the LBJ Ranch.
D. Each year about 200,000 hunters are attracted to the region, mainly by the world’s largest
concentration of white-tailed deer.
III. The Llano Basin
A. The Llano Basin is the smallest geographic section in Texas.
B. The land of the Llano Basin is low because of erosion caused by the Llano, San Saba, Pedernales,
and Colorado Rivers.
C. Large lakes and reservoirs on the Colorado River occupy part of the area.
IV. The High Plains
A. The High Plains occupy most of the Panhandle.
B. The North Plains extend from the northern border of the Panhandle to 50 miles north of Lubbock.
C. More cotton is grown in the South Plains than in any other part of the state.
D. Amarillo, the largest city of the North Plains, is a transportation and commercial center serving
Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
E. Lubbock is the largest city in the South Plains, serving as the commercial and cultural center for a
large area.
F. Midland and Odessa, located in the southern part of the High Plains, center around the oil industry.
Did you know
Texas has nine hot springs—five of them near Marfa. The hottest is Indian Hot Springs, which has an
average temperature of 117°F. Bathers come to the hot springs for the medicinal qualities the springs are
believed to possess. Other hot springs include Ruidosa Hot Springs (113°F) and Rio Grande Village
Springs (97°F).
Lesson 2-4
I. The Dry Environment – The Mountains and Basins
A. The Mountains and Basins region is part of the Rocky Mountain system, which extends from
Canada to Mexico.
B. Located in westernmost Texas, it is the highest and driest of the regions.
C. The region’s natural vegetation of cactus, yucca, and other desert plants combines with the great
natural beauty of canyons and mountain plateaus and contrasting basins.
D. Most of the region’s people live in El Paso.
E. Farming, producing mainly cotton, as well as pecan trees and cantaloupes, occurs mainly along the
Rio Grande and where springs and wells irrigate the land.
F. The region maintains close economic and cultural ties to Mexico.
II. Mountain Ranges
A. This region contains all of Texas’s mountains, including the Guadalupe Range, which is the highest
range, peaking at 8,749 feet.
B. The Upper Rio Grande Valley, a narrow strip of irrigated land east of El Paso, is an important
cotton farming region.
C. Petroleum and natural gas, as well as limestone, shale, clay, and other minerals, lie in the region.
III. El Paso
A. Located in this otherwise sparsely populated region, El Paso is one of the state’s largest cities.
B. El Paso, at the far western tip of Texas, lies where the Texas, Mexico, and New Mexico boundaries
join.
C. Far from other Texas cities, El Paso’s economy is tied to neighboring states and Mexico.
D. El Paso has a strong Hispanic tradition and is a popular tourist spot.
E. Located across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, El Paso is the commercial center of the
Rio Grande Valley.
F. Increased manufacturing has followed the establishment of NAFTA.
G. Many factories, or maquiladoras, have been built in Juárez and El Paso.
H. These factories in Mexico provide piecework jobs that serve contracts with large corporations
from the United States, Japan, Germany, and other industrialized nations.
I. El Paso also has oil refining facilities, diverse factories, and important military installations.
Did you know
For 12,000 years, nomadic people of the Plains used the colorful flint found at a vast flint quarry in the
Texas Panhandle for their arrowheads and tools. Ice Age Clovis people used flint for spear heads to hunt
mammoths. Today the site is preserved as the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument at Fritch, Texas.