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The Big Thicket is the name of a heavily forested area in Southeast Texas. While no exact boundaries exist, the area occupies much of Hardin, Tyler, and Polk Counties and is roughly bounded by the Trinity River, Neches River, and Pine Island Bayou. To the north, it blends into the remainder of the larger Piney Woods terrestrial ecoregion of which it is a part. Southeast Texas is a region in the southeast corner of the U.S. state of Texas. ...
The Trinity River is the name of two rivers in the United States. ...
The Neches River flows for 416 miles through East Texas to its mouth on Sabine Lake. ...
The Piney Woods is an area of East, Southeast & Northeast, Texas (A line from Paris, Texas to Houston, Texas). ...
Ecoregions are defined by World Wildlife Fund as relatively large units of land or water containing a distinct assemblage of natural communities and species, with boundaries that approximate the original extent of natural communities prior to major land-use change. Terrestrial ecoregions are land ecoregions, as distinct from freshwater ecoregions...
The Big Thicket has been described as one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, and the Big Thicket National Preserve was established there to attempt to protect the many plant and animal species within.
Geography
- "One's fondness for the area is hard to explain. It has no commanding peak or awesome gorge, no topographical feature of distinction. Its appeal is more subtle." - Big Thicket Legacy, University of Texas Press, 1977.
The terrain in the Big Thicket is unremarkable and offers none of the impressive views that many other National Parks and Preserves contain. The area lies on the flat coastal plain of Texas, and is crossed by numerous small streams. State nickname: Lone Star State Other U.S. States Capital Austin Largest city Houston Governor Rick Perry (R) Official languages None. ...
The Big Thicket's geographical features are believed to have their origins with the Western Interior Seaway, an inland sea that covered much of North America during the Cretaceous period. Over time, water smoothed out the land along what is now Texas's coastline. The Western Interior Seaway, also called the Cretaceous Seaway and the North American Inland Sea, was a huge inland sea that split the continent of North America into two halves during most of the early and mid-Cretaceous period. ...
The Cretaceous period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic period (about 135 mya) to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary period (65 mya). ...
Many small towns are contained within the Big Thicket. Most of these towns developed in the late 19th century in support of the lumber industry, as evidenced by names like Lumberton and Woodville. As transportation through the area improved (including the construction of US 69 and 96), may of the towns slowly became suburbs of the much larger city of Beaumont to their south. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Lumberton is a city located in Hardin County, Texas. ...
Woodville is a town located in Tyler County, Texas. ...
US 69 is a north-south United States highway. ...
US 96 is a north-south United States highway. ...
Beaumont is a city in Jefferson County, Texas. ...
Biology What the Big Thicket lacks in geography is made up for by the biodiversity contained within. During the most recent ice age, plant and animal species from many different biomes moved into the area. Before their extinction, the Big Thicket was home to most species of North American megafauna. Biodiversity or biological diversity is the diversity of and in living nature. ...
The Wisconsin (in North America), Weichsel (in Scandinavia), Devensian (in the British Isles) or Würm glaciation (in the Alps) is the most recent period of the Ice Age, and ended some 10,000 Before Present (BP). ...
In Ecology, a biome is a major regional group of distinctive plant and animal communities well adapted to the regions physical environment. ...
Megafauna are the large animals of any particular region or time. ...
Today the Big Thicket retains numerous species, and has been described as the "biological crossroads of North America" or the "American Ark". The area contains over 100 species of trees and shrubs, but is dominated by Longleaf Pine, which reaches heights of over 30 m (100 ft). One thousand species of flowering plant can also be found in the thicket, including 20 orchids and four types of carnivorous plant. Binomial name Pinus palustris Mill. ...
Orchid re-directs here; for alternate uses see Orchid (disambiguation) Genera Over 800 See List of Orchidaceae genera. ...
A Nepenthes in flower, growing on a road cut in Palau A carnivorous plant is a plant that derives some or most of its nutrients (but not energy) by trapping and consuming animals, especially insects and other arthropods. ...
Animal life includes 300 species of migratory and nesting birds, many endangered or threatened. The thicket is also home to numerous reptile species, including all four groups of venomous North American snakes and alligators. Binomial name Alligator mississippiensis (Daudin, 1801) American Alligator range map The American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is a member of the one of the three families of crocodile-like reptiles, whose members are living fossils from the Age of Reptiles, having survived on earth for 200 million years. ...
Big Thicket National Preserve The Big Thicket National Preserve is also located there, highlighting the area's natural resources. The 97,000 acre (390 km²) preserve boasts a varied ecology piney woods, swamps, and coastal prairies. Includes extremely diverse plant communities like, orchids, cactus, baldcypress, and pine in close proximity to each other. About 65,000 people visit it each year. (Ecology is sometimes used incorrectly as a synonym for the natural environment. ...
Orchid re-directs here; for alternate uses see Orchid (disambiguation) Genera Over 800 See List of Orchidaceae genera. ...
Genera Many, see text A cactus (plural, cacti or cactuses) is a type of (usually) succulent plant belonging to the dicotyledonous flowering plant family, Cactaceae. ...
Species Taxodium ascendens - Pond Cypress Conservation status: Secure Taxodium distichum - Bald Cypress Conservation status: Secure Taxodium mucronatum - Montezuma Cypress Conservation status: Data Deficient Taxodium is a genus of one to three species (depending on taxonomic opinion) of extremely flood-tolerant conifers in the cypress family, Cupressaceae, one of several genera...
Species About 115. ...
The preserve was established October 11, 1974, and was designated a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1981. October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in Leap years). ...
1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ...
A Biosphere Reserve is an international conservation designation for reserves designated by UNESCO under the MaB (Man and the Biosphere) Programme. ...
UNESCO logo The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, commonly known as UNESCO, is a specialized agency of the United Nations system established in 1946. ...
1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Ghost Road A dirt road leading north out of the town of Saratoga is the core of the area's predominant ghost story. Bragg Road, as it is more formally known, was constructed in 1934 on the bed of a former railroad line that had serviced the lumber industry. A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or the belief of some character(s) in them. ...
In the 1940s, stories began to circulate about a mysterious light that could be seen on and near the road at night. No adequate explanation of the light has been offered. The various ghost stories include reference to the Kaiser Burnout, long-dead conquistadors looking for their buried treasure, a decapitated railroad worker, and a lost night hunter eternally searching for a way out. // Events and trends The 1940s were dominated by World War II, the most destructive armed conflict in history. ...
Conquistador (meaning Conqueror in the Spanish language) is the term used to refer to the soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who achieved the Conquista (this Spanish term is generally accepted by historians), i. ...
Less paranormal explanations include swamp gas, and automobile headlights filtering through the trees. Anomalous phenomena are phenomena which are observed and for which there are no suitable explanations in the context of a specific body of scientific knowledge, e. ...
Natural gas rig Natural gas (commonly refered to as gas in many countries) is a gaseous fossil fuel consisting primarily of methane. ...
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