Outline Notes, Texas 1900s to the Present

...developing a regional structure which persists today

Two key events

1. Spindletop
2. Meat Packing

Oil in Texas

affected every region of the state

added oil to the list of primary products and exports
generated the need for new tools, supplies, transportation
created wide variety of related economic activities and industries

economic multiplier: flow of $$$ into Texas generated great local wealth

Houston as core focus area (persists to today because of geographic inertia)

Meat Packing

Swift and Armour first...major national firms lured to texas to exploit raw materials

Effect of national companies investing in Texas?

Agricultural Development in Texas

...some regions changing with oil and industry, others changing because of agriculture

High Plains: subdivided into two regions 1) South Plains, and 2) Panhandle

different environments, crops, people, and orientation

Lubbock vs Amarillo

Lower Valley:

boom similar to that of CA, AZ, and FL promoted by railroads; attracted Mexicans.

Result: social partitioning--Anglo farmers and formen, Mexican laborers

Winter Garden: Upper Nueces, Frio and Atascosa

This is a self study guide to the Regions of Texas to the middle of the century. As we discuss the current economy of Texas we will update changes in these regions to present day.

Instructions for active learning opportunities are marked with this icon

Regions of Texas 1960s

a snapshot of the recent past to help understand the present .
Use the map in ARGOT entitled Culture Areas 1960s to see where each region is located.

East Texas: distinct; a combination of economic change and social continuity. The economy has changed because of large scale oil and timber operations (today, chickens!) but the change has been in a context of social stability. Not much had changed in terms of race relations in East Texas by the mid 60s. Western extension of the Old South; changes in agriculture, population characteristics but not religion; oil, oil, and oil and some other industrial development, especially along the Dallas-Shreveport axis; population geographically stable; rural but living in urban areas; plagued by the problems of the Old South, especially racial discrimination.

Read Deep East Texas

Gulf Coast: Beaumont/Port Arthur/Orange to Corpus Christi: a series of interrelated clusters of population; 20th century phenomena born of oil; largest concentration of industries associated with oil in Texas concentrated here. One of the major petrochemical complexes in the US. population growth from in-migration from LA, AR, OK, and North; mobile society with flexible social patterns; migration of Blacks to urban areas in northern part of region (Beaumont); Mexicans to southern part of region (Houston, CC); Baptists and Methodists in the north, Catholics, Lutherans etc. in the south. Greater cultural diversity in the southern part of the region but nothing to rival the diversity of Central Texas. Big scale agriculture (cotton, cattle, rice). Closest links to the rest of the US; least anti-union region of Texas.

South Texas: distinct and important region; dryland farming, oil, ranching, industry (along coast); bicultural, Hispanic and Anglo, but economically interdependent while socially segregated. Acculturation vs assimilation (see previous notes). Lower Valley unique landscape--a long urban strip with distinct ethnic spatial patterns: clusters of Hispanics, clusters of Anglos, very little integration.

Southwest Texas: Mexican border zone including the Edwards Plateau and TransPecos. Similar to South Texas but simpler. No oil. Little water. 1960s showed little of today's potential or promise. NAFTA makes this region a threshold, not a periphery (see previous notes). Largest city: El Paso

Hill Country: cultural anomoly on the border of West Texas. Focused on Fredericksburg. Farming and ranching. German Catholics, Methodists, and Lutherans. Traditional Republican stronghold. Wet (drink/buy alcohol). Few Blacks or Hispanics. Not much change in the 60's. Home of Lyndon Baines Johnson.

West Texas: from the Western Cross Timbers to the Pecos, from the Red River to the Concho. Farms, ranches, and oil. Farms larger as one moves west due to declining carrying capacity of the land. Ranching where land is too marginal to farm. Midland-Odessa key cities but Abilene, San Angelo other important centers. Conservative but mainstream politically. Dry (as opposed to wet).

North Texas: vague region--buffer between West and East. Settled by competing groups: Cross Timbers vs Prairies. Changes in patterns of cotton production.

Central Texas: cultural diversity and cultural convergence. religious, political, and economic diversity. Settled by peoples from Europe, Mexico, Upper and Lower South. Clear focus city? Is it Waco? Austin?

The Panhandle: subtle yet distinct differences make the Panhandle different from West Texas. High wheatland never supported cotton and, thus, African Americans and Hispanics never used for labor. Also, no strong Southern cultural antecedents. Settled by people from the Plains or Midwest. Protestant, but Midwestern Protestant, Southern. More Methodists than Baptists. Politics those of conservtative, agrarian, Republicans of Kansas (e.g. Bob Dole),not rural Southern Democrats (who are now all turned Republican in the rest of Texas). More like Kansas than Texas. Border zone of Texas society. Transportation networks oriented to Kansas City and east more than Fort Worth, Dallas, and Gulf.

Decide what city you think might have served as the "lead core" city in Central Texas in the 1960's.

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