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Information about West Texas

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The dry plains of West Texas, have often been divided up into tracts of land divided by barbed wire fences. The restriction of the "Wide Open Spaces," in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, led to a sense of loss expressed by songs such as ''Don't Fence Me In.


West Texas is a region in Texas that has more in common geographically with the Southwestern United States than it does with the rest of the state. The area is known for its natural beauty and has many small mountain ranges. This part of Texas is in the Northern Chihuahua Desert, and the high mountain areas have a climate that many find pleasant: cold nights but warm afternoons in winter, hot days but cool nights in the summer. West Texas has a much lower population density than the rest of the state. It was once mostly inhabited by nomadic Native American tribes such as the Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa until after the Civil War. It does not have as many ties to the Southern United States as does East Texas, although many of the people who currently populate West Texas are also migrants from other parts of Texas and other Southern states or their descendants. There is a very large Hispanic population, especially near the Rio Grande. Many Mexicans fled Ojinaga and walked to Marfa during the Mexican revolution in the early days of the 20th century. Many Mexican-Americans still have close family ties in Mexico.

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El Paso is the largest city in West Texas.


West Texas receives much less rainfall than the rest of Texas and has an arid or semi-arid climate, requiring most of its scant agriculture to be heavily dependent on irrigation. This irrigation, and water taken out farther North for the needs of El Paso and Juarez, Mexico, has reduced both the Pecos River and the once mighty Rio Grande to a stream in some places, even dry at times. Much of West Texas has rugged terrain including many small mountain ranges while there are none in other parts of the state. West Texas contains part of the Chihuahuan Desert and also the Southern Great Plains, known as the Llano Estacado.

Due to their smaller numbers, many West Texans feel politically isolated from the rest of the state. There is a diverse mix in political philosophies found in West Texas. The area is known for its conservative politics — some of the most heavily Republican counties in the United States are located in the region, where United States President George W. Bush spent his early youth. At the same time there is a large number of Texas Democrats. However, many of these Democrats also vote for Republicans and support conservative issues such as Proposition Two, the anti-gay marriage initiative that Texas voters overwhelmingly supported.
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The Chihuahuan desert covers much of southern West Texas west of the Pecos River.


Major industries include livestock, petroleum and natural gas production, textiles such as cotton, grain farming and because of its proximity to the Mexican border, the maquiladora industry.

West Texas, with its sparsely populated and relatively unpolluted land and its wide vast openness, has also become a destination for people looking to get away from urban life, and although it appears to be only lightly populated, there are many people who own vacation homes there. However, the population is not expected to mushroom in the near future, as it is such a remote area. The main towns of Pecos, Marfa, Alpine, Marathon, Fort Davis, Valentine, and Van Horn are all approximately 2-3 hours from the nearest commercial airports in El Paso and Midland-Odessa.

Map showing differences in population density from West to East Texas

Major cities and metropolitan areas

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Downtown Abilene, on the eastern edge of West Texas

See also

 •  • [ e]
State of Texas
Austin (capital)
Topics Climate | Culture | Demographics | Economy | Education | Geography | Government | History | Languages | Politics | Texans | Transportation | Symbols
Regions Ark‑La‑Tex | Big Bend | Blackland Prairies | Brazos Valley | Central Texas | Coastal Bend | Cross Timbers | Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex | Deep East Texas | East Texas | Edwards Plateau | Galveston Bay | Golden Triangle | Greater Houston | Llano Estacado | Longview–Marshall | Northeast Texas | North Texas | Osage Plains | Permian Basin | Piney Woods | Rio Grande Valley | Southeast Texas | South Plains | South Texas | Texas Hill Country | Texas Panhandle | West Texas
Metropolitan
Areas		 Abilene | Amarillo | Austin–Round Rock | Beaumont–Port Arthur | Brownsville–Harlingen | College Station–Bryan | Corpus Christi | Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington | El Paso | Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown | Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood | Laredo | Longview | Lubbock | McAllen–Edinburg–Mission | Midland–Odessa | San Angelo | San Antonio | Sherman–Denison | Texarkana | Tyler | Victoria | Waco | Wichita Falls
Counties See: List of Texas counties
State of Texas

Flag of Texas Seal
Nickname(s): Lone Star State
Motto(s): Friendship.
Before Statehood Known as
The Republic of Texas

Official language(s) No official language

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Southwestern United States; commonly referred to as The Southwest; is a region of the western United States. Its population is less than three people per cubic mile.
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Chihuahuan Desert is a desert that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. On the U.S. side it occupies the valleys and basins of central and southern New Mexico, Texas west of the Pecos River and southeastern Arizona; south of the border, it covers the northern half of the Mexican state
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Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, humans in particular.

Biological population densities


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American Indian and Alaska Native
One race: 2.5 million[1]
In combination with one or more other races: 1.6 million[2]
Regions with significant populations  United States

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Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose range (the Comancheria) consisted of present-day Eastern New Mexico, Southern Colorado, Southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of Northern and Southern Texas. There may once have been as many as 20,000 Comanches.
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Kiowa are a nation of Native Americans who lived mostly in north Texas, Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico at the time of the arrival of Europeans. Today the Kiowa Tribe is federally recognized, with about 12,000 members living in southwestern Oklahoma.
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American Civil War (1861–1865) was a major war between the United States (the "Union") and eleven Southern slave states which declared that they had a right to secession and formed the Confederate States of America, led by President Jefferson Davis.
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The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States.
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East Texas is a distinct geographic and ecological area in the U.S. state of Texas.

According to the Handbook of Texas, the East Texas area "may be separated from the rest of Texas roughly by a line extending from the Red River in north central Lamar County
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Origin southern Colorado, in Saguache County
Mouth Gulf of Mexico; Cameron County, Texas, and Matamoros municipality, Tamaulipas
Basin countries United States, Mexico
Length 3,034 km (1885 mi)
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Anthem
Himno Nacional Mexicano


Capital
(and largest city) Mexico City

Official languages Spanish (
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Rain is a type of precipitation, a product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that is deposited on the earth's surface. It forms when separate drops of water fall to the Earth's surface from clouds.
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In general terms, the climate of a locale or region is said to be arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or even preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life.
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A Semi-arid climate or steppe climate generally describes climatic regions that receive low annual rainfall (250-500 mm or 10-20 in). A more precise definition is given by the Köppen climate classification that treats steppe climates (BS) as intermediates between the desert
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Agriculture (from Agri Latin for ager ("a field"), and culture, from the Latin cultura "cultivation" in the strict sense of "tillage of the soil". A literal reading of the English word yields "tillage of the soil of a field".
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Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the soil usually for assisting in growing crops. In crop production it is mainly used to replace missing rainfall in periods of drought, but also to protect plants against frost.
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City of El Paso

Flag
Seal
Nickname: Star of the Southwest," "The Sun City," and "Land of the Sun
Location in the state of Texas
Coordinates:
Country
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Ciudad Juárez
Coordinates:
Founded 1659
Government
 - Municipal president Jose Reyes Ferriz
( PRI)
Elevation 1120 m (0 ft)
Population (2005)
 - City 1,301,452
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Pecos River or Rio Pecos, as it is known in New Mexico, rises near Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States, and flows for 926 miles (1490 km)
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Origin southern Colorado, in Saguache County
Mouth Gulf of Mexico; Cameron County, Texas, and Matamoros municipality, Tamaulipas
Basin countries United States, Mexico
Length 3,034 km (1885 mi)
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Great Plains are the broad expanse of prairie and steppe which lie east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming, and
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Llano Estacado (Sp.
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Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favor tradition and gradual change, where tradition refers to religious, cultural, or nationally defined beliefs and customs.
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Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States of America, along with the Democratic Party. It is often referred to as the Grand Old Party or the GOP. It is the younger of the two major U.S.
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George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the forty-third and current President of the United States of America, originally inaugurated on January 20, 2001. Bush was first elected in the 2000 presidential election, and reelected for a second term in the 2004 presidential election.
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United States of America

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Livestock is the term used to refer (singularly or plurally) to a domesticated animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to make produce such as food or fibre, or for its labour.

Livestock may be raised for subsistence or for profit.
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Petroleum (Latin Petroleum derived from Greek πέτρα (Latin petra) - rock + έλαιον (Latin oleum) - oil) or crude oil
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