Texas Trivia (San Antonio, El Paso, Fort Worth: scorpions, airport, rattlesnakes)

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

It has been three hours and jtur88 does not seem to be around, so I will ask the next question.

What is "Old Sparky" and where can it be found?

Isn't Old Sparky the electric chair at Huntsville??? Total guess here

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

Isn't Old Sparky the electric chair at Huntsville??? Total guess here

Good Guess, your turn HtownLove!

Old Sparky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Electric Chair Huntsville Prison



The Texas electric chair to which the name "Old Sparky" is applied was in use from 1924 to 1964. During that time, it saw the deaths of 361 prisoners sentenced to die by judicial electrocution. It was built by incarcerated craftsmen in 1924. Following its decommissioning, it was originally relegated to a prison dump before being rescued. Today, it is on public display as part of a replica death chamber at the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville, Texas along with tubing and straps used in Texas' first execution by lethal injection.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Galveston. Its possible there was another "first working telephone" but this is on record as the "first commercial use of a telephone".

Galveston is corrrect.

[HtownLove]

What Texas Port was almost blown off the map when several ships loaded with ammonia nitrate caught fire and exploded in 1947????

[lothartheterrible]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

What Texas Port was almost blown off the map when several ships loaded with ammonia nitrate caught fire and exploded in 1947????

Texas City; April 16, 1947.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by lothartheterrible

Texas City; April 16, 1947.

correct, your turn

[lothartheterrible]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

correct, your turn

Thank you.

F5 tornadoes struck the downtown areas of two Texas cities on May 11 exactly 17 years apart. What cities were they, and in what year did each one's respective disaster occur?

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by lothartheterrible

Thank you.

F5 tornadoes struck the downtown areas of two Texas cities on May 11 exactly 17 years apart. What cities were they, and in what year did each one's respective disaster occur?

Waco (53) and Lubbock (70).

[lothartheterrible]

Originally Posted by jtur88

Waco (53) and Lubbock (70).

That is correct; 114 people died when an F5 tornado tore through the heart of Waco on May 11, 1953. Seventeen years later to the day, on May 11, 1970 an equally powerful twister hit the central area of Lubbock claiming 26 lives and doing $1.4 billion (2011 USD) in damage. The latter is of personal interest to me; my mother was at my grandmother's house at 1903 10th St. at the time this storm hit along with my oldest sister, aunt and grandmother. They all escaped serious injury but the woman who lived at 1902 10th, directly across the street, was killed when the twister leveled her house. Life is truly a game of inches, I suppose.

Your turn.

[jtur88]

What old Texas town-site is now publicly visible only with binoculars, is associated with a legendary Texas historical figure, and bears the colorful name of a desert critter?