East Texas is a distinct geographic and ecological area in the U.S. state of Texas.
According to the Handbook of Texas, the East Texas area "may be separated from the rest of Texas roughly by a line extending from the Red River in north central Lamar County southwestward to east central Limestone County and then southeastward to Galveston Bay", though some separate the Gulf Coast area into a separate region.
This area includes all or parts of 49 counties, totaling almost 40,000 square miles (100,000 km2) and a population of almost 6 million. Another popular, somewhat simpler, definition defines East Texas as the region between Interstate 45 as the western border linking Dallas and Houston, the Louisiana border as the eastern border, the Oklahoma border as the northern border, and Galveston Bay shores as the southern border.
Most of the region consists of the Piney Woods ecoregion, and East Texas can sometimes be reduced to include only the Piney Woods. Houston is rarely regarded as a part of East Texas and is more closely associated with the Coastal Bend along the Gulf of Mexico; as has been the case for most of the city's recent history. At the fringes, towards Central Texas, the forests expand outward toward sparser trees and eventually into open plains.
Famous quotes containing the words east and/or texas:
“Sublime tobacco! which from east to west
Cheers the tar’s labour or the Turkman’s rest.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“During the cattle drives, Texas cowboy music came into national significance. Its practical purpose is well known—it was used primarily to keep the herds quiet at night, for often a ballad sung loudly and continuously enough might prevent a stampede. However, the cowboy also sang because he liked to sing.... In this music of the range and trail is “the grayness of the prairies, the mournful minor note of a Texas norther, and a rhythm that fits the gait of the cowboy’s pony.””
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)