Did You Know? 6 Interesting & Wild Facts About Texas.

Don't Mess With Texas. It's our slogan, our rallying cry. The thing you say to people when they want to start talking bad about our wonderful state.

However, did you realize it wasn't actually intended to be that? It's not something someone just decided to say as they got upset with someone.

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There are some things about Texas that you may not (or maybe you did) know, even though you may have known about them. Here are just a few of the wild and crazy facts about Texas that may blow your mind.

DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS

The slogan mentioned above we love to use and is known across the country, was actually created for an anti-littering campaign back in the 80s. When it was first created, there were some who wanted it to sound a bit nicer. In fact, it was even proposed to be changed to "Please Don't Mess With Texas".

That got shot down, but they ran with it anyway. It did indeed work as the littering in the state did come down quite a bit, but it also became the slogan by which we run.

EVERYTHING REALLY IS BIGGER IN TEXAS

And that includes our capitol building. Located in Austin off of Congress Ave, our Capitol building is actually TALLER than the U.S. Capitol building. It stands over 300 feet tall and is easily seen from miles away in Austin.

Here's something crazier about it. It's not even the tallest capitol building in the country. In fact, it's only the sixth largest. Think about that for a minute.

GOING BATTY

I'm sure we've all heard about, or even seen, the bats in Austin. During the summer, hundreds of people line up along the Congress Bridge in Austin to see the massive bat display that takes place.

Roughly 1.5 MILLION Mexican Free-Tailed bats come darting out from underneath the bridge for an absolutely breathtaking sight. It is the biggest bat colony in the WORLD, and you won't see it anywhere else.

THIS PLACE IN TEXAS IS BIGGER THAN AN ENTIRE STATE

The state of Rhode Island measures out to 1,214 square miles. Yes, Vermont isn't a huge state, but it is an entire state. There's a place in Texas where you could actually drop the entire state of Rhode Island in...and still have room.

That place is King Ranch in Kingsland. King Ranch measures out to a whopping 1,300 square miles.

SO THAT'S WHERE SIX FLAGS GOT ITS NAME

We all know that at one point, Texas was its own country. However, did you know that there have been six different nations that ruled or had sovereignty over at least some of the region?

Those six were Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and of course, the United States of America. It is also the origin of the popular amusement park's name, Six Flags.

WE KNOW WE'RE A BIG STATE, BUT...

Have you ever noticed that when we are asked how far away a certain city is, we measure it in hours as opposed to miles? There's actually a reason for that. Texas is a stunning 800 miles WIDE. In fact, there are cities in Texas that are closer to cities in California than they are to Dallas.

We're looking at you El Paso.