Texas Regions

Celebrating Texas text pages 44-69

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1. Physical Geography – the physical features of the earth’s surface. (What does the earth look like…mountains, plains, oceans, vegetation, climate, etc..) Plains (a wide area of flat or gently rolling land) are also part of our physical geography.

2. Human Geography – the features of the earth that is created or changed by humans. (What humans do such as farming, mining, building, digging ditches, creating a hill to jump over on a 4-wheeler, etc…) People who study human geography also analyze transportation and settlements (a place where people live) and other things people have created.

SECTION 1

What kind of climate does Texas have?

Since Texas is in the middle latitudes, it has hot summers and

cool winters. As you would expect, winters are colder in the

northwestern part of the state known as the Panhandle. Winters

are milder in South Texas.

Rivers are important to Texas.

*Much of the Texas border is made up of three rivers:

Rio Grande – separates Texas and Mexico

Sabine River – separates Texas and Louisiana

Red River – separates Texas and Oklahoma

The Pecos River is an important tributary (a stream that flows into a larger stream or other body of water) of the Rio Grande. The Pecos River provides irrigation water for farms in New Mexico and Pecos, Texas.

The Four Regions of TexasNatural regions are determined by physical geography

features such as landforms, climate, and vegetation.

The four regions are:Coastal Plains

North Central Plains

Great Plains

Mountains and Basins

All three of these regions

can be divided into

subregions (a smaller

division of a geographic

region)

SECTION 2

• Includes about 1/3 of Texas• Home to more people than any other

part/region of Texas• About 2 out of every 3 Texans live in the

Coastal Plains• WE live in the Coastal plains• The Coastal Plains are divided into 5

subregions:-Piney Woods -Post Oak Belt-Gulf Coast Plain -Blackland Prairie

-South Texas Plain

Coastal Plains

SUBREGIONS OF TEXASSUBREGIONS OF TEXASCoastal Plains and its Subregions

SUBREGIONS OF TEXASSUBREGIONS OF TEXAS North Central Region and its Subregions

North Central Region and its Subregions•Rolling plains Brush, scattered grasses

•Covered by small oak and mesquite trees

•North Central Region is divided into 3 subregions:

Grand Prairie

Cross Timbers

Rolling Plains

Great Plains Region and its Subregions

Great Plains Region and its SubregionsGreat Plains Region is divided into 3

subregions:

1. Llano Basin: -nearly center of Texas -made up of granite (pink in color) and hard rock that is formed when molten rock cools slowly under the earth’s surface -mesquite, live oak, and post oak trees -short grasses

2. Edwards Plateau: -primarily of limestone -caves and underwater streams -Edwards Aquifer (San Antonio’s water supply) is in this subregion

3.High Plains: -major farming area -dry climate -elevation ranges from 3,000-4,000 feet

Mountains and Basins Region

• Tall mountains separated by large basins (closed valleys)

• Forests on mountains

• Lower elevations (basins) are deserts with cactus, short grasses, and shrubs

• Very little rain

• Contains the HIGHEST POINT IN TEXAS: Guadalupe Peak ~ 8,751 feet

Mountains and Basins Region

www.utpb.edu/.../ Links/basin_range.htm

www.usa-reise.de/planung/ hdb-guadalupe-mounta...

• Learning to identify different regions in Texas can be difficult.

• The Balcones Escarpment is important because it divides the lowest parts of Texas from the higher areas. (East and south are lower and flatter, while the land west of the Balcones Escarpment is more varied.)

• The Great Plains is largely an elevated plateau – very flat and contains some deep canyons.

• The Mountains and Basins region is the only area where there are mountain ranges separated by flat-bottomed valleys called basins.

INTERACTIVE MAP

Mapping Texas People

• The 2000 census = about 21 million in Texas

• Texas = 2nd most populated state (CA is #1)

SECTION 3

•Although Texas is famous for ranches and oil wells, most Texans don’t live in rural areas – they live in cities.

A metropolitan area is a city and the area around it, including the suburbs. (A suburb is a smaller community just outside a city.)

POPULATION OF TEXAS’S LARGEST METROPOLITAN AREAS, 1990–2000POPULATION OF TEXAS’S LARGEST METROPOLITAN AREAS, 1990–2000

• Why do so many people live in Central and East Texas and so few in West Texas?

•People tend to live where the jobs are.

•For example, Houston began to grow in its early years because of its oil industry (the activity of making or preparing products for sale).

•Dallas – large number of companies, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (one of the busiest airports in the US).

•San Antonio – military bases, scenic (Alamo, River Walk)

•Austin – Capital, largest university in the state, high-tech industry

•NO big industry in West Texas

• Even though most Texans live in cities, agriculture is still one of the state’s most important industries.

• Only the state of California earns more money from farming than Texas.

• Texas produces more cotton than any other state.• Other important crops include: peanuts, black-eyed

peas, pecans, wheat, potatoes, corn, rice, hay, soybean, and citrus fruit.

• Texas is also an important livestock producer – mainly cattle, sheep, and goats.

• Per capita income is often used to measure how wealthy people are. (Per capita income = the average amount of income per person per year in a given area)

• If you take all the money earned by everyone in Texas and divide it by the state’s population, you will find the per capita, or per person, income. In 1998, the per capita income was $25,369.

•Bigger cities attract well educated people and, therefore, get more high paying jobs.

•Sherman County (rich with oil industry) has the highest per capita income. (This is near Oklahoma in the Northern Panhandle.)

•The areas around the border of Mexico have the lowest per capita income.

Diverse Names of Texas Cities and Towns

• Texas has a number of cities and towns whose names reflect the various people that make up our state.

• Many Texas place names are taken from Spanish words that honor a certain place, an individual, or a characteristic of an area. (San Antonio is the largest city in Texas with a Spanish name.)

• Many other Texas place names reflect the state’s varied heritage (beliefs and customs that people get from their ancestors). An example of this would be New Braunfels and its German heritage.