The Lone Star State

In the margins of news about a death dealing amoeba - some relative of that same animal which featured in biology classes at my secondary school - I have learn some interesting facts about Texas.

First, that the water authority concerned, the people at reference 1, is a public authority of some kind. So in the country where they don't really believe in public services, at least some of their water supply is in public hands, unlike in this country where we still pay lip service to public services, especially of the health variety - and where everything to do with water was sold into privatisation years ago.

A public authority which appears to have annual public meetings at which important deeds are approved. Or not, as the case may be.

They also see fit to have a special charter which appears to cover the rights of the people owning land which some public authority covets. This can be seen at reference 2. I dare say we have rules of the same sort, but we don't draw attention to them in quite this way.

Second, I have learned something about the birth of Texas. I had thought that the Yankee imperialists just took it from the peace loving Mexicans. It now seems that Texas seceded from Mexico in 1835 or so and joined the Union in 1845 or so, as the 28th State. So not quite the land grab I had thought. 

But it may also be true that Yankees colonised a thinly populated Texas prior to 1835 and then drove the independence movement. So a land grab after all. I associate to the colonisation of what was then Palestine a hundred years later.

I may get around to finding out more about the history of Texas and its people.

In the meantime, a quick peek at my grand Times Atlas (from 1968), reveals that Texas is very much in two parts. The hilly two thirds to the west and the low lying third to the east, with the split running pretty much north-south, from Fort Worth down to Laredo. Also that Texas has its very own Colorado River, a lot bigger than our Thames but a lot smaller than the other Colorado, the one with the big dam. While the rather larger Red River marks the northern boundary with Oklahoma before nipping across Louisiana to join the Mississippi just north of New Orleans. I wonder if 'Colorado' is Spanish for 'Red'? But just as well to have different names for these two very different rivers.

Reference 1: http://brazosportwaterauthority.org/.

Reference 2: http://brazosportwaterauthority.org/images/landowners_billofrights%20english.pdf.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_(Texas).