TEXAS

Still cherishing the memory that it was from 1836 to 1845 an independent nation in its own right, TEXAS stands apart from the rest of the United States. While its sheer size – eight hundred miles from east to west and nearly a thousand from top to bottom – gives it a great geographical diversity, is firmly bound together by a shared history, culture and ideology. Independence is key to the Texan mentality, from the overriding distrust of government – any government – to the absence of unionized labor. As the old anti-litter campaign put it, "Don't mess with Texas."

Preconceived ideas about what exactly is "Texan" are soon shattered. It's actually one of the most eclectic and cosmopolitan states in the Union and each of the major tourist destinations has its own distinct character. Hispanic San Antonio, for example, with its Mexican population and historic importance, has a laid-back feel absent from the big-city neurosis of Houston or Dallas, while trendy Austin revels in a lively music scene and intellectualism found nowhere else in the state. Regional differences are vast.

The swampy, forested east is more like Louisiana than the pretty Hill Country or the agricultural plains of the Panhandle, and the tropical Gulf Coast has little in common with the mountainous deserts of the west. Changes in climate are equally dramatic: snow is common on the Panhandle, whereas the humidity of Houston, in particular, is only made bearable by nonstop high-power air conditioning. One thing shared by the whole of Texas is the constant boasting – everything has to be bigger and better than anywhere else. Such chauvinism is tempered both by a delight in self-parody and by the state's melting pot of cultures. The much-cited Texan friendliness is not imaginary; to be unwelcoming would simply be unpatriotic. Texas is, after all, named for a Native American word meaning friend, tejas, and a visit here, especially to the Panhandle or the Hill Country, is not for those who want to be alone.

East Texas
The tall pine forests of east Texas bear more relation to Louisiana than to the rest of the state; while undeniably Texan, the locals also identify themselves culturally and geographically with the adjacent corners of Arkansas and Louisiana – the "Arklatex" – and you'll find jambalaya and gumbo in restaurants along with standard Texan dishes. Burial sites and reconstructed dwellings of the sophisticated Caddo Indians, an early southeastern mound-building culture, can be seen at the Caddoan Mounds State Historic Site, thirty miles west of Nacogdoches on Hwy-21. Active between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, the site includes a self-guided walking tour and videos on Caddoan history (Mon & Thurs–Sun 9am–4pm; $3 per car, $1 for pedestrians and cyclists; tel 936/858-3218).

Central Texas
Central Texas stretches from the prairies of the northeast through the green and fertile Hill Country into the chalky limestone landscape of the west, and includes two of Texas's most pleasant cities: San Antonio and Austin. Austin in particular, the capital city and home to the progressive University of Texas, helps to give the region an intellectual and political feel uncharacteristic of the rest of the state. Agriculture has been the mainstay of the economy here ever since the resis-tant Comanche population was finally packed off to reservations in the 1840s. The slave-driven cotton plantations of the south and east have gone, but the small communities set up by Polish, Czech, Norwegian and Swedish immigrants in the Hill Country maintained, even until very recently, the traditions, architecture and languages of their homelands. Great cattle drives came trampling through after the Civil War and played a large part in the development of San Antonio.

North and east Texas
Early immigration into north and east Texas, during the days of the Republic and following the devastation of the Civil War, was largely from the Southern states. In the 1930s, the northeastern oil fields near Tyler (a drab town only redeemed by its beautiful rose gardens) proved to be the richest ever found in the US. In addition to oil, agriculture has become a prime source of commerce, with logging important in the densely forested east. The grand exception is, of course, the Metroplex – the area which includes Dallas and Fort Worth. The main tourist attractions and cultural life of the region are concentrated here; but if you enjoy exploring small-town America, and have a car, the north and east can yield more subtle pleasures. The national forests of Angelina, Davy Crockett, Sabine and Sam Houston in the east offer unsurpassed opportunities for outdoor living: the forest supervisor (tel 713/632-4446) in Lufkin, midway between Davy Crockett and Angelina on US-59, has details of free and private camping facilities. Fans of the movie will want to check out Paris, Texas, northeast on US-82.

Southern Texas and the Gulf Coast
The coastline of south Texas, which state residents half-jokingly refer to as the "Third Coast," curves from Port Arthur on the Louisiana border (a shipping and petrochemical town and the birthplace of Janis Joplin) on the much-touristed Gulf Coast, down past the urban monster of Houston, to the Rio Grande, the border with Mexico. Giant, cosmopolitan Houston dominates everything; its great wealth has led to a thriving arts scene, but ultimately it overpowers, rather than relates to, the rest of the region. Geographically and culturally, this area has two distinct faces. To the east are the seaside resorts of the prairie, rolling away from the hills and forests of east Texas. Much of the coast is feeling the strain of rapid property development, but there are still unspoiled stretches along the Padre Island National Seashore. In the south, a Hispanic influence spreads north from the fertile Rio Grande Valley. The border towns here have little charm and are only of interest as points of entry into Mexico for cheap shopping and entertainment. Uniting south Texas is the hot, swampy climate; Houston, especially, is unbearable in the summer, one reason for the mass exodus to the coast.

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