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1. Central Plains – Landforms, Climate, Location
Early travelers through north Texas coined the name "Cross Timbers" by
their repeated crossings of these timbered areas that proved to be a barrier
to their travel on the open prairies to the east and west. This area in north
and central Texas includes areas with high density of trees and
irregular plains and prairies. Soils are primarily sandy to loamy.
Rainfall can be moderate, but somewhat erratic, therefore moisture is
often limiting during part of the growing season. Also known as the Osage
Plains, it is the southernmost of three tallgrass prairies. It varies from
savannah and woodland to the east and south, into shorter mixedgrass prairie to the west. As in the rest of the Great Plains, fire,
topography, and drought maintained prairie and established the location of
woodlands.
This region is bound by the Caprock Escarpment to the west, the
Edwards Plateau to the south, and the Eastern Cross Timbers to the
east. This region has an increasingly drier climate and is higher in
elevation from east to west. This area includes the cities of Abilene,
Wichita Falls, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, and Dallas.
With about 35 to 50 inches annual rainfall, gently rolling to hilly
forested land is part of a larger pine-hardwood forest of oaks, hickories,
elm, and gum trees. Soils vary from coarse sands to tight clays or red-bed
clays and shales.
2. Central Plains – Economy and Resources
This area still has a large cattle-raising industry with many of the state’s largest ranches.
However, there is much level, cultivable land. It is a limestone-based area, usually treeless
except along the numerous streams, and adapted primarily to raising livestock and growing
staple crops. Sometimes called the Fort Worth Prairie, it has an agricultural economy and
largely rural population, with no large cities, except Fort Worth on its eastern boundary. Their
soils are adapted to fruit and vegetable crops, which reach considerable commercial production
in some areas in Parker, Erath, Eastland, and Comanche counties.
3. Great Plains – Landforms, Climate, Location
The Great Plains region has three sub regions. Two are large plateaus—the High Plains and the Edwards
Plateau. The third sub region, the Llano Basin, is an area that is very different from any other part of Texas.
This area of Texas is called the Panhandle. It is straight and narrow like the handle of a pan with the broader
area of the state below it, like the bottom of a pan.
This region has mostly flat, grassy land or plains. These plains are part of the same flat grassland that
extends from the Great Plains of the Central United States. Sometimes this land is also called the Llano
Estacado or “Staked Plains.” The land is mostly treeless and is on a high, flat plateau. The eastern part of the
Panhandle is not quite as flat. It is lower in elevation and called a rolling plain. There is more rainfall in this
eastern half and it is brushy. Regional Average Rainfall: 15-28 in./yr
The western and eastern parts of the Panhandle region are strikingly divided by deep canyons carved by
rivers and their tributaries that wind their way through this area.
Palo Duro Canyon and Caprock Canyons State Parks are in this region. The remarkable canyons were carved
by rivers. They are sometimes called "inverterted mountains" since the land is relatively flat until you reach the
long and steep canyons in the ground.
Major Rivers: Red, Pecos, Canadian, Colorado and Brazos.
Major Aquifer: Ogallala, Seymour, Nacotoch, Alluvium, Cenozoic, Pecos, Edwards-Trinity
Size: 81,500 sq. mi.
The Panhandle goes from gently rolling hills to rough and dissected with canyons. This area forms the
southern end of the Great Plains. Soils vary from coarse sands along streams, to clays and shales. The soil is
neutral to slightly alkaline. Caliche (kah-lee-chee), soil mixed with chunks of calcium carbonate, generally is
found two to five feet under surface soils.
4. Great Plains – Economy and Resources
The South Plains, also a leading grain sorghum region, leads Texas in cotton production.
Lubbock is the principal city, and Lubbock County is one of the state’s largest cotton producers.
Irrigation from underground reservoirs, centered around Lubbock and Plainview, waters much
of the crop acreage. Grass for cattle, weeds for sheep, and tree foliage for the browsing goats
support three industries — cattle, goat, and sheep raising — upon which the area’s economy
depends. It is the nation’s leading Angora goat and mohair producing region and one of the
nation’s leading sheep and wool areas. A few crops are grown. Additional economic activity is
afforded by local oil fields.