Columns & Opinions

Drought conditions across the state dropped a percentage point in May compared to the previous month, with 26% of the state in some stage of drought, primarily in West and South Texas and parts of the Panhandle. Massive storms in late April and into May caused flooding and wind damage in East and North Texas but did pull those regions out of drought. Some parts of Central and East Texas received three times their average rainfall in May, according to Mark Wentzel, hydrologist with the Texas Water Development Board.

Before the Texas Revolution and the annexation debates of the 1830s and 1840s, portions of Texas were briefly considered part of the United States, all stemming from the Louisiana Purchase. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States doubled in size overnight. America had pushed far to the West into the wide expanses of the High Plains and to the frontiers of Texas. The French government was very evasive in what they considered to be the extent of the Louisiana Territory. The question of whether the United States owned any portion of Texas was ultimately put in the hands of one of America’s top diplomats, John Quincy Adams.

Suzanne’s