Texas
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211 free Texas trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
52 free Texas trivia questions with answers. This Texas trivia quiz is built around Texas history: the Caddo word that gave the state its name, Cabeza de Vaca and La Salle, Austin's Old Three Hundred, the cannon at Gonzales, the thirteen days at the Alamo, the eighteen minutes at San Jacinto, the Republic and its presidents, annexation as the 28th state, secession and the last battle of the Civil War, Juneteenth in Galveston, the 1900 hurricane, Spindletop and the oil boom, the Rangers, and the space centre in Houston. A first round covers the state symbols everyone should know: the capital, the flower, the mammals, the six flags. Questions run from easy (which city is the capital?) to hard (which European power recognised the Republic first?), so it works for a Texas history class, a Texas Independence Day round, or a Lone Star trivia night. Difficulty is marked on every question. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on Texas, its history, the revolution and the Republic, and each question shows its citation.
30 of 211 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which city on the Texas border has a federal building that stands in two states at once?
Texarkana
Texarkana was founded in 1873 where tracks laid across Texas were to meet a line coming through Arkansas; its main street, State Line Avenue, follows the border, and the federal building stands astride it.
Q 02Who was the first elected president of the Republic of Texas?
Sam Houston
Sam Houston won the September 1836 vote on his fame as the victor of San Jacinto, defeating two rivals; he returned to the presidency in 1841.
Q 03What is the official state flower of Texas?
Bluebonnet
The Bluebonnet won a heated 1901 debate in which future vice president John Nance Garner praised the cactus so warmly that he was 'Cactus Jack' for life.
Q 04How many national flags have flown over Texas?
Six
Six flags have flown over Texas, one for each nation that has ruled it; the phrase later gave a Texas-born theme-park chain its name.
Q 05What is the official state motto of Texas, adopted in 1930?
Friendship
'Friendship' became the motto in 1930 as a nod to the state's name, usually traced to a Caddo word, rendered tejas by the Spanish, that meant friends or allies.
Q 06What is the official state insect of Texas, chosen in 1995?
Monarch butterfly
The monarch butterfly got the title because, lawmakers noted, it descends on Texas each autumn for a last rest and feeding before the final leg of its flight to the mountains of Mexico.
Q 07Which of these is the official state snack of Texas?
Tortilla Chips and Salsa
Tortilla Chips and Salsa were named state snack in 2003 because, the Legislature said, they are folk foods that became commercial giants and are embraced by Texans of every background.
Q 08What is the official state fruit of Texas?
Ruby Red Grapefruit
Ruby Red Grapefruit, officially the Texas red grapefruit, became state fruit in 1993; the variety began in the late 1920s as a chance mutation on a single tree and earned the first grapefruit patent.
Q 09Which bird is the official state bird of Texas?
Northern Mockingbird
The Northern Mockingbird was chosen in 1927 because, the resolution said, it is 'a fighter for the protection of his home, falling, if need be, in its defense, like any true Texan'.
Q 10Which animal is recognized as the official small mammal of Texas?
Armadillo
The armadillo got the title in 1995 but is a relative newcomer: before the 1850s it was found only along the lower Rio Grande, and it has been spreading north ever since.
Q 11Which Spaniard, shipwrecked on the Texas coast in 1528, became one of the first Europeans to live in and cross Texas?
Cabeza de Vaca
Cabeza de Vaca survived for years among native peoples as a trader and healer, then walked with three companions to Spanish Mexico, arriving in 1536.
Q 12What was La Salle actually looking for when he mistakenly planted a French colony on the Texas coast?
The mouth of the Mississippi
La Salle sought the mouth of the Mississippi but overshot it, landing far to the west at Matagorda Bay, which he at first took for one of the river's outlets; his colony collapsed within a few years.
Q 13Mexico's 1824 constitution merged Texas with which neighbour into a single state?
Q 21How long did the decisive Battle of San Jacinto last on April 21, 1836?
18 minutes
The fighting took about 18 minutes and was wildly lopsided: hundreds of Mexican soldiers died for fewer than a dozen Texans, and Santa Anna was captured the next day.
Q 22What was Santa Anna wearing when he was captured the day after San Jacinto?
A private's uniform jacket
Santa Anna had swapped his finery for a private's uniform jacket, but the disguise failed when other Mexican prisoners cried out in recognition of their commander.
Q 23Two cannon that opened the Battle of San Jacinto, a gift from Cincinnati, were nicknamed what?
The Twin Sisters
Coahuila
Coahuila was joined to Texas as the state of Coahuila y Tejas; when Texans asked for a state of their own in 1833, the envoy who carried the request to Mexico City was arrested on his way home.
Q 14The first colonists to receive land grants in Mexican Texas in the 1820s are known by what name?
The Old Three Hundred
The Old Three Hundred took up a grant Spain had first made to Moses Austin; he died before using it, and his son had to win Mexico's approval all over again.
Q 15The Texas Revolution began on October 2, 1835, at Gonzales, when Texans refused to hand back what?
A small cannon
A small cannon, lent by Mexican authorities in 1831 for defence against raids, was the prize; the Texans' refusal to return it gave rise to the 'Come and Take It' flag.
Q 16Where did delegates adopt the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836?
Washington-on-the-Brazos
Washington-on-the-Brazos hosted the convention in an unfinished building; two weeks later the delegates left in haste as Santa Anna's army approached.
Q 17How long did the siege of the Alamo last before Santa Anna's final assault?
13 days
The siege lasted 13 days, ending in the assault of March 6, 1836; Travis's pleas for reinforcements brought only 32 men from Gonzales through the Mexican lines.
Q 18Which frontiersman and former Tennessee congressman died defending the Alamo in 1836?
David Crockett
David Crockett lost his House seat in 1835 and told voters they could go to hell and he would go to Texas; he reached San Antonio only weeks before Santa Anna did.
Q 19Which Texian colonel surrendered the force later shot at Goliad in 1836?
James Fannin
James Fannin surrendered after being surrounded at Coleto Creek; a week later more than 300 of his men were marched out and shot, though General Urrea had urged clemency.
Q 20What name is given to the panicked flight of Texas settlers eastward ahead of Santa Anna?
The Runaway Scrape
The Runaway Scrape became a general flight when the Texian army, learning at Gonzales that the Alamo had fallen, retreated east; families kept going until news of San Jacinto turned them back.
The Twin Sisters, a pair of cannon paid for by the citizens of Cincinnati, later vanished; their fate is so debated that the hunt for them has been called the search for the Texas Holy Grail.
Q 24The treaties Santa Anna signed to end the Texas Revolution are named after which coastal town?
Velasco
The Treaties of Velasco, signed on May 14, 1836, were declared void within days by Mexico's government because Santa Anna had signed them as a captive.
Q 25What nickname did the Republic of Texas's paper money earn from its ink?
Redbacks
Redbacks, first issued in 1839, were worth only about 37 cents on the dollar from the start and had lost almost all their value within three years.
Q 26The 'Father of Texas' died in December 1836 after two months in which office?
Secretary of State of the Republic
Stephen F. Austin became Secretary of State of the Republic after losing the 1836 presidential election, the winner offering him the post; he died in office at 43.
Q 27Which leader of the Republic of Texas moved its capital to the new frontier town of Austin in 1839?
Mirabeau B. Lamar
Mirabeau B. Lamar had the capital built on the exposed western frontier; his successor thought it so unsafe that he tried to move the government away in 1842.
Q 28The Republic of Texas's 1836 national flag, a gold star on blue, was named for which member of its interim government?
David Burnet
The Burnet Flag, named for interim president David Burnet, was adopted in December 1836; the Lone Star Flag replaced it as the national flag in 1839, though it lived on as the war flag.
Q 29Which European power recognised the Republic of Texas in 1839 and built a legation in Austin?
France
France signed a treaty with Texas on September 25, 1839; two years later its envoy quit Austin after a feud with an innkeeper over marauding pigs, the so-called Pig War.
Q 30Which state joined the Union just before Texas, earlier in 1845?
Florida
Florida became the 27th state on March 3, 1845; Texas followed on December 29 and, as a former republic, skipped the territorial stage that Florida had passed through.