1. Central Plains – Landforms, Climate, Location
Early travelers through north Texas coined the name "Cross
Timbers" by their repeated crossings of these timbered areas that
proved to be a barrier to their travel on the open prairies to the
east and west. This area in north and central Texas includes areas
with high density of trees and irregular plains and prairies. Soils
are primarily sandy to loamy. Rainfall can be moderate, but
somewhat erratic, therefore moisture is often limiting during part
of the growing season. Also known as the Osage Plains, it is the
southernmost of three tallgrass prairies. It varies from savannah
and woodland to the east and south, into shorter mixed-grass
prairie to the west. As in the rest of the Great Plains, fire,
topography, and drought maintained prairie and established the
location of woodlands.
This region is bound by the Caprock Escarpment to the west, the
Edwards Plateau to the south, and the Eastern Cross Timbers to the
east. This region has an increasingly drier climate and is
higher in elevation from east to west. This area includes the
cities of Abilene, Wichita Falls, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, and
Dallas.
With about 35 to 50 inches annual rainfall, gently rolling to
hilly forested land is part of a larger pine-hardwood forest of
oaks, hickories, elm, and gum trees. Soils vary from
coarse sands to tight clays or red-bed clays and shales.
2. Central Plains – Economy and Resources
This area still has a large cattle-raising industry with many of
the state’s largest ranches. However, there is much level,
cultivable land. It is a limestone-based area, usually treeless
except along the numerous streams, and adapted primarily to raising
livestock and growing staple crops. Sometimes called the Fort Worth
Prairie, it has an agricultural economy and largely rural
population, with no large cities, except Fort Worth on its eastern
boundary. Their soils are adapted to fruit and vegetable crops,
which reach considerable commercial production in some areas in
Parker, Erath, Eastland, and Comanche counties.
3. Great Plains – Landforms, Climate, Location
The Great Plains region has three sub regions. Two are large
plateaus—the High Plains and the Edwards Plateau. The third sub
region, the Llano Basin, is an area that is very different from any
other part of Texas. This area of Texas is called the Panhandle. It
is straight and narrow like the handle of a pan with the broader
area of the state below it, like the bottom of a pan.
This region has mostly flat, grassy land or plains. These plains
are part of the same flat grassland that extends from the Great
Plains of the Central United States. Sometimes this land is also
called the Llano Estacado or “Staked Plains.” The land is mostly
treeless and is on a high, flat plateau. The eastern part of the
Panhandle is not quite as flat. It is lower in elevation and called
a rolling plain. There is more rainfall in this eastern half and it
is brushy. Regional Average Rainfall: 15-28 in./yr
The western and eastern parts of the Panhandle region are
strikingly divided by deep canyons carved by rivers and their
tributaries that wind their way through this area.
Palo Duro Canyon and Caprock Canyons State Parks are in this
region. The remarkable canyons were carved by rivers. They are
sometimes called "inverterted mountains" since the land is
relatively flat until you reach the long and steep canyons in the
ground.
Major Rivers: Red, Pecos, Canadian, Colorado and
Brazos.Major Aquifer: Ogallala, Seymour, Nacotoch, Alluvium,
Cenozoic, Pecos, Edwards-Trinity Size: 81,500 sq. mi.
The Panhandle goes from gently rolling hills to rough and
dissected with canyons. This area forms the southern end of the
Great Plains. Soils vary from coarse sands along streams, to clays
and shales. The soil is neutral to slightly alkaline. Caliche
(kah-lee-chee), soil mixed with chunks of calcium carbonate,
generally is found two to five feet under surface soils.
4. Great Plains – Economy and Resources
The South Plains, also a leading grain sorghum region, leads
Texas in cotton production. Lubbock is the principal city, and
Lubbock County is one of the state’s largest cotton producers.
Irrigation from underground reservoirs, centered around Lubbock and
Plainview, waters much of the crop acreage. Grass for cattle, weeds
for sheep, and tree foliage for the browsing goats support three
industries — cattle, goat, and sheep raising — upon which the
area’s economy depends. It is the nation’s leading Angora goat and
mohair producing region and one of the nation’s leading sheep and
wool areas. A few crops are grown. Additional economic activity is
afforded by local oil fields.