Texas is packed with “Only in Texas” cultural icons, cuisine, topographies, musicians, music genres, over-the-top movie stars, artists of all genres and some genres that have no name, sport’s stars and pro teams, products, retail businesses and products, corporations, and landmarks. The reasons could be our culture, our history, our size, our landscapes, or who knows. I like to believe it is because our history led to our Texas culture, but this is not a proven theory.
What Does Texas Have that No Other State Has?
The cultural icons include the Alamo, the largest state fair in the nation in Dallas—The Texas State Fair and the Cotton Bowl, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s guitar at Austin’s Guitar Center store, Tex-Mex cuisine, the Margarita and Mexican Martini—ubiquitous in Austin, Willie Nelson’s song book written when he was 11 in Abbott—at the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University in San Marcos, the South by Southwest Festival and the Austin City Limits Music Festival—globally known music traditions.
Plus, J. Frank Dobie’s Cowboy Hat—an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist on the lifestyle of the open range, the original the Blue Bell Creamery (ice cream), Fritos, Pace Picante Sauce, and Dr. Pepper—but Texans call all sodas “Coke”, Chili and Frito Chili Pie, Chicken Poop Bingo, the original of Goddess of Liberty Statue at the Bullock Texas State History Museum, the largest rose garden in the world in Tyler, Texas, and I could go on, but these cultural icons are pretty darn good start.
Texas-Only Brands
Texas has Tesla and NASA… Blue Bell Ice Cream, Dr. Pepper, and Fritos, but there is SO much more! Have you heard of Stetson Hats or Jenny N. Leather Bags? What about cowboy boot brands, Abilene Boots, Anderson Bean Boots, J.B. Hill, Justin, Lucchese, San Antonio Shoemakers (SAS), Tony Lama, and many more, plus dozens of handmade custom boot makers?
We cannot possibly list all the “Texas Made” products here. That category belongs on its own website. Texas Outside found the following products interesting:
Texas Food Brands:
- Pioneer Mixes: Biscuits, gravies, pancakes & more.
- Ponder Farms Sausage.
- TJ Blackburn Syrup & Jellies.
- Arriba! Fire Roasted Salsas.
- Suckle Busters Marinades, Rubs: sauces, and spices (BBQ).
- Fischer & Wieser Specialty Foods, Fredericksburg: 150 products from Texas’ famous German community.
- Fischer’s Meat Market, Muenster: meats, meat processing, cheeses, specialty items, spices, groceries and fresh produce-more famous German products.
- Picosos Peanut Company: raw, roasted, roasted & salted, roasted, salted & spiced peanuts.
- Bastrop Cattle Co.: Ships ranch to table beef to your door, quarter, half, or whole cow, or combination boxes (100s of Texas ranches also sell ranch to table beef).
- Anthony Orchards Ranch Oak Smokehouse: Smoked beef, pork, turkey products, tamales, and specialty products shipped to your door.
Natural health and beauty products include soaps, body scrubs, lotions, and washes, lip balms, sunscreen, facial moisturizers, shampoos, conditioners, beard oils, shave butters and creams, and more. Small companies produce tons craft beers and distilled spirits all over Texas. Glassworkers, woodcrafters, leather crafters, and pottery artist produce arts and craft products from Texas. You can find these products easily online.
Texas Sports
Only Texas has the Dallas Cowboys and the globally popular Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. A gathering of men met at the Hupmobile showroom owned by Ralph Hay, who owned the Bulldogs, in Canton, Ohio, on September 17, 1920. This meeting resulted in the birth of the National Football League (NFL). Clint Murchison Sr., one of the richest of Texas oilmen, founded the original Dallas Cowboys NFL football team in 1960 and hired 39-year-old “Tex” Earnest Schramm Jr., “Tex”.
Tex Shramm established the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in 1961. Dallas Sports Nation reports that after football, the next most popular sports in Texas are: 2. boxing, 3. baseball, 4. soccer, and 5. soccer. According to Bleach Reports, some of the most famous sports stars in Texas are Emmet Smith, George Foreman, Nolan Ryan, Trevor Brazile, Ben Hogan, A. J. Foyt, and Babe Didrikson Zaharias, plus so many more record breakers in Texas.
Texas Musicians
From the era of Bob Wills to the era of Willie Nelson and the Austin City Limits to the era of the South by Southwest Festival to the genres of pop and rap, Texas has given and continues to give birth to some of the most talented music professionals in the world. Texas started out becoming musically famous with Bob Wills, the “King of Western Swing”, and the Texas Playboys in radio’s golden era from 1925 to 1979. Bob was still touring when Willie Nelson came on the scene in Austin.
Some of today’s most modern well-known Texan singers, songwriters, musicians, and bands are Beyonce, Nelly, Usher, Erykah Badu, Kelly Clarkson, Machine Gun Kelly, the Foo Fighters, Brave Combo, At the Drive-In, and The D.O.C. We could list the other 88 top 100 most famous Texas musicians, but we will end with some of the most influential artists from days gone by:
Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lead Belly, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Holly Roy Orbison, Kris Kristofferson, Janis Joplin, Don Henley, Waylon Jennings, Meat Loaf, Buck Owens, Townes Van Zandt, Lefty Frizzell, Jack Teagarden, Asleep at the Wheel, Eanest Tubb, Barry White, Johnny Mathis, Kinky Friedman, Gene Autry, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Steve Miller, ZZ Top, Kenny Rogers, Roger Miller, and we feel so guilty for cutting this list short.
Texas Movie Stars
Texas does not fall short on acting talent. The following movies stars who trace their roots to Texas include: Dennis Quaid, Caleb Landry Jones, Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Gary Busey, Patrick Swayze, Jamie Foxx, Jim Parsons, Tommy Lee Jones, Randy Quaid, Steve Martin, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Eva Longoria, Renée Zellweger, Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson, Ethan Hawke, Steve Martin, Larry Hagman, and Dan Blocker just to name a few…
Texas Writers
J. Frank Dobie christened John Crittenden Duval as the “Father of Texas Literature”. Duval wrote Duval wrote about his escape from the Goliad Massacre in Early Times in Texas and the Adventures of Big Foot Wallace. In one of the last battles of the Texas War for Independence, General Santa Anna executed over 300 Texian soldiers. J. Frank Dobie is today’s “Storyteller of the Southwest”.
Dobie was an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist well known for eight books, and from the time of John Duval, at the very beginning of Texas as a nation, until today. Texas is known for its rich traditions, and its literary heroes have continued to write them in flourishing styles. They record Texas culture in the finest literary terms. The Texan eras that dominated culture came in waves through the years.
Next came the eras of early statehood, the Civil War, cotton, cattle, and railroads, cowboy and trail drive adventures, wildcatters and oil barons, Texan outlaws, Prohibition, women’s suffrage, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, Civil Rights, and Conservatism, which led to some of the greatest autobiographies, non-fiction, historical fiction, fiction, and historical accounts ever written about Texas.
Famous traditional Texas writers include, Walter Prescott Webb, Thomas Calloway Lea, J. Evetts Haley, Sally Reynolds Matthews; Katherine Anne Porter, T. R Fehrenbach, and Larry McMurtry. Other notable modern writers are, Horton Foote, Katherine Anne Porter, Molly Ivins, Elmer Kelton, Brian T. Atkinson, Larry L. King, Colleen Hover, Domingo Martinez, and so many others with a Texas legacy.
Texas Painters
Early Texas painters painted Texas as it was in the 1800s and the early 1900 to mid-1900s. They captured the people and landscapes that is Texas. Famous names include: Theodore Gentilz, Hermann Lungkwitz, Mary Bonner, Mode Walker, Julian Onderdonk, Robert Onderdonk, Jose Arpa, Thomas Allen, Julius Stockfleth, Edward Grenet, Frank Reaugh, Frank Reaugh, Dawson Dawson-Watson, Carl von Iwonski, and Audley Dean Nichols.
The bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas, and several Texan painters are notable bluebonnet artists. Names include: Julian Onderdonk, José Arpa, Emma Louise (Richardson) Cherry, Paul Rodda Cook, Eloise Polk (EP) McGill, Ella Marie Koepke Mewhinney, Porfirio Salinas, Robert Wood, and Robert Harrison. Today, Texas is brimming with artists of many, many genres and they are too populous to list here.
Texas Landmarks
The most famous Texas landmarks come in the forms of buildings and the shapes of landscapes which are, the Alamo—San Antonio, the Texas State Capital—Austin, Palo Duro Canyon—Canyon, The Cross-Groom, Big Tex—Dallas, Texas State Fair Grounds, The Big Texan Steak Ranch and Brewery—Amarillo, AT&T Stadium (Dallas Cowboys)—Arlington, Big Bend National Park—West Texas, Magnolia Market at the Silos—Waco, and the Space Center (NASA)—Houston.
What Can You Do in Texas that You Can’t Do Anywhere Else?
- Go behind the scenes and tour at the AT&T Stadium-Arlington
- Paint a Cadillac at the Cadillac Ranch—Just East of Amarillo, Route 66
- Attend an Underground Concert at the Cave Without a Name—Boerne
- View the Dallas skyline at Reunion Tower observation deck—Dallas
- Take the JFK assassination tour—Dallas
- See the early planes of the U.S. at the Frontiers of Flight Museum—Dallas
- Visit the Museum of Biblical Art—Dallas
- Marvel at the exhibitions at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science—Dallas
- Visit the American West at the Fort Worth Stockyards—Fort Worth
- Stroll the Kemah Boardwalk that rivals Atlantic City—Kemah on Galveston Island
- Walk in dinosaur tracks at Dinosaur Valley State Park—Glen Rose
- Check out Mission Concepcion built in 1755—San Antonio
- Stroll the San Antonio River Walk—San Antonio
- See the Waco Mammoth National Monument, the largest concentration of Columbian mammoth’s remains in the world—Waco
Author: Kendall Davis
Author: Kendall Davis Company: Lumini Services Kendall currently lives on the shores of Lake Texoma in Texas. She traveled across two-thirds of the U.S. for many years camping at lakes, rivers, and three oceans before motels and hotels if at all possible, and she continuously saw God's presence in nature. Writing for Lakehub allows Kendall to share her experience with God's creations. https://kdavis1836.wixsite.com/luminiwrites
