The Six Flags Over Texas

Part of being Texan is understanding our past, whether it’s the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 or the first lunar landing in 1969. The Lone Star State has an immense history that stretches from prehistoric to present day. Paleontologists and scientists have long flocked to Texas due to our abundant fossilized remains found throughout the state. In just the last couple of years, remains of a mosasaur were found in North Texas and bone fragments of a plesiosaur were uncovered in the Malone Mountains out west. There is also evidence of the earliest residents of what is now Texas at places like the Gault Site or visible in rock art near Comstock. Museums across the state offer plenty of opportunities to explore what came before.

There are three federally recognized Indigenous tribes based in Texas, the Alabama-Coushatta, Tigua, and Kickapoo. Along with many other tribes recognized by historians and the state of Texas—like the Lipan Apache in South Texas, the Karankawa on the coast, and other tribes that lived in Texas and are now based in Oklahoma—these tribes helped shape the culture and landscapes of the state.

 

Spanish colonization of the area began in the 1500s with Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca washing ashore on what is now Galveston. He would meet the Karankawa—one of the many Native American groups that were the original residents of the area. Over the years, there have been six different flags that have flown over what is now known as Texas:

• Spain
• France
• Mexico
• The Republic of Texas
• Confederate States of America
• United States of America

While Texas’ complex history can’t be contained within an email or a short list, the eight iconic spots within our 50 True Texas Adventures provide a primer as well as engaging detours in your journey toward achieving True Texan status. 

Survey the San Antonio Missions

Founded in 1845—though home to Indigenous people long before that—our state has a multifaceted history. A good place to start learning about it is the 18th-century San Antonio Missions, a National Park Service site and the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Texas. At the Spanish missions Concepción, San José, San Juan, and Espada along the San Antonio River, you’ll learn about colonizers’ efforts to convert Indigenous peoples to Catholicism and teach them agricultural skills and the Spanish language. Then head to Mission San Antonio de Valero, also known as the Alamo, to see how Texan revolutionaries repurposed the old structures and reframed them in public memory as a landmark of Texas independence.

Tour the ornate Texas State Capitol building

In 1839, the Republic of Texas established Austin as the capital. A fire destroyed the original limestone capitol building in 1881. Thankfully, plans were already in place to reconstruct a new building since the original lacked architectural refinement. Sunset red granite was brought in from nearby Burnet county via rail cars. The current building was dedicated in 1888 and is the largest statehouse in the country.  

These days, you can brush up on Texas history and government in a free half-hour tour of the Capitol building. The route includes the rotunda, the underground extension, and the House and Senate chambers, where visitors are often surprised to learn that the lawmakers’ desks are the 1889 originals.

Spend a day among the stars at Space Center Houston

Budding astronauts and outer space enthusiasts will soar through this 250,000-square-foot educational complex that features 400-plus space artifacts, exhibits, and more. Guided tours bring visitors to NASA’s historic mission control, used for the first lunar landing in 1969, and to today’s astronaut training facility where, from an elevated walkway, they can take a bird’s-eye view of NASA engineers and astronauts at work. Visitors can also take a tram to the George W.S. Abbey Rocket Park to see a Saturn V rocket that launched the Apollo spacecraft to the moon. Leave time to explore the flight deck and living quarters of a full-scale space shuttle replica.

Admire the Painted Churches crafted by Czech and German immigrants

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Czech and German immigrants built churches in communities they established near Schulenburg and decorated them with vividly painted walls and ceilings and magnificent stained glass. In Sts. Cyril and Methodius Shrine in Dubina, for example, the ceiling is a brilliant blue dotted with 3,000 gold stars. The Schulenburg Chamber of Commerce offers guided tours and sells a map visitors can use to follow their own path. “You think you’re in a Central Texas prairie in the middle of nowhere with a very simple plain church, and when you step across the threshold it blossoms into a European experience,” Chamber director Terri Wagner says.

Scale the Port Isabel Lighthouse—if you’re not afraid of heights

Built in 1852, the Port Isabel Lighthouse is the only lighthouse in Texas open to the public. Climb the state historic site's 75 steps, including a spiral staircase and two ladders, to the catwalk for a close-up look at the replica of the original lens and a sweeping view of the Laguna Madre and South Padre Island.

Embark on the Texas State Railroad’s route through the Piney Woods

The Texas State Railroad carries passengers on a leisurely round trip between the East Texas towns of Palestine and Rusk. The rail line was built in the early 1900s to transport iron from the Rusk state penitentiary’s foundry, but since the 1970s the railroad has carried tourists rather than cargo on the 25-mile journey through the Piney Woods. Visitors can ride in an open-air coach, glass-walled observation dome, or elegant presidential car, all pulled by a restored steam or diesel locomotive. During the holidays, the train transforms into the magical Polar Express that travels to the North Pole in the 1985 Chris Van Allsburg book (and 2004 movie) of the same name. Staff members read the book to hot cocoa-sipping families as the train trundles along, and Santa and his elves gift each child a silver bell.

View Henry Trost’s architectural masterpieces throughout downtown El Paso

Start researching architecture in our state, and you’ll quickly hear the name Henry Trost. Born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1860, Trost moved to El Paso in 1903 and opened an architecture firm with his brothers. Over the next 30 years, their firm designed and built hundreds of buildings in the El Paso area and beyond. Heavily influenced by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Trost’s architectural styles ranged from Mission Revival to Bhutanese to Art Deco. In El Paso, one must only step foot in the downtown area to see Trost designs. The Hotel Paso del Norte, for example, first opened in 1912 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Now part of the Marriott Bonvoy Autograph Collection, the building displays Trost’s affinity for Spanish Colonial Revival Style arches. Other notable structures include the Anson Mills Building and the Plaza Pioneer Park, an Art Deco building where Elizabeth Taylor once lived.

Cruise the Boogie Woogie Highway to learn the genre’s origins

Boogie Woogie's roots can be traced to the logging camps of East Texas, where formerly enslaved people played tunes for respite from their toils, accentuating the piano’s rhythmic properties to get people dancing. Defined by a walking bass line—a repeating sequence of notes that propels the rhythm forward—the music is perfect for a road trip through the Piney Woods where it originated. In 2012, musicologist John Tennison dubbed a 280-mile stretch of US 59 between Houston and Texarkana the “Boogie Woogie Highway.” Travel the route and stop at key landmarks, like The Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club in Houston and Texarkana’s Museum of Regional History, home of a piano like one owned by Scott Joplin.

Visit one of Texas’ three presidential libraries

There are a total of 15 Presidential Libraries run by the National Archives and Records Administration across the United States. Three of those are in the state of Texas—more than any other state in the country. Each of these chronicle not just the respective president's tenure, but also American history during that time period. Located on the University of Texas at Austin campus, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum opened in 1971 as the nation's fifth presidential library and the first to be on a university campus. The George H.W. Bush Library would follow in 1997 in College Station and also serves as his final resting place. The George W. Bush Presidential Library is located at Southern Methodist University and opened in 2013. 

See where Texas won its independence

San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site marks the site of the concluding battle of Texas Revolution. The Battle of San Jacinto lasted all of 18 minutes on April 21, 1836. According to Sam Houston's reports, 630 Mexicans were killed and 730 taken prisoner. Against this, only nine of the 910 Texans were killed and 30 wounded. Antonio López de Santa Anna, commander-in-chief and president of Mexico, had managed to escape during the battle and was found the next day. Two treaties were signed at Velasco on May 14, 1836, that ended the conflict and birthed the Republic of Texas.

The San Jacinto Monument on the grounds is approximately 570 feet tall and offers sweeping views of the Houston Ship Channel.

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