r/TheTexanLife

Look at those horns!!

This giant cowboy boot isn’t just a quirky roadside photo opportunity—it’s one of the many oversized attractions at The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, one of the most famous stops along historic Route 66.

The Big Texan first opened in 1960 to celebrate the larger-than-life spirit of Texas. While it’s best known worldwide for its legendary 72-ounce steak challenge, the property has become a destination filled with giant Texas-themed attractions, including this massive cowboy boot, a giant longhorn, and other over-the-top Western displays.

The restaurant originally sat directly on Route 66 before relocating to Interstate 40 in 1970 after traffic shifted away from the old highway. Today, millions of travelers have stopped to experience its unmistakable bright yellow buildings, Western atmosphere, and roadside landmarks that have made it one of Texas’ most recognizable tourist attractions.

Whether visitors come to attempt the famous steak challenge or simply snap a picture beside a giant cowboy boot, The Big Texan has become a symbol of the “everything is bigger in Texas” tradition.

Has anyone here actually attempted the 72-ounce steak challenge—or at least gotten a photo with the boot? 🤠🥩👢

Look at the Widdle puppie!!! our offical state dog! the Blue Lacey!!

The sky here in texas, especially in parkinglots is just unbeatable. who said you could be so beautiful!?

The Bell 206L-1 LongRanger II “Spirit of Texas” has one of the coolest backstories in helicopter history.

In 1982, H. Ross Perot Jr. and Jay Coburn used this aircraft to complete the first round-the-world flight by helicopter. They departed Dallas on September 1, 1982, and returned 29 days, 3 hours, and 8 minutes later after flying across 26 countries.

The helicopter was heavily modified for the journey with extra navigation and safety equipment, pop-out floats, emergency supplies, and a large auxiliary fuel tank that replaced the rear seat. That gave it enough endurance to fly up to eight hours without refueling.

One of the wildest parts of the route involved the North Pacific. Because Soviet refueling permission was unavailable, a container ship was positioned as a floating refueling stop. Landing a light helicopter on a ship in rough seas became part of the record-setting trip.

The “Spirit of Texas” is now preserved by the Smithsonian and displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. It is one of those aviation stories that deserves to be better known.

In Old Town Lewisville, the benches along Main Street are more than places to sit — they are pieces of public art telling the story of the city’s past.

Designed by May + Watkins Design and installed in 2019, the benches were created for the Main and Mill Corridor Enhancement Project. Each one reflects a piece of Lewisville’s early growth, including cotton, railroads, wheat, hay, corn, and the historic feed mill. The artists used stainless steel, aluminum, and cast glass to turn local history into functional sculpture.

The Cotton Bench honors Lewisville’s role as home to Denton County’s first cotton gin in the late 1860s. Its design shows cotton in different stages, from boll to bur.

The Rail Bench points to the railroad lines that helped shape the town’s growth. Its colored glass circles resemble railroad signal lights, and the design even includes a bike rack element.

The Corn and Silo Bench draws from corn plants and the decorative silo roofing of the historic Lewisville Feed Mill building on Main Street.

Together, these benches make Old Town feel like an outdoor museum. They are easy to pass by without noticing, but each one carries a small chapter of Lewisville’s story — a reminder that the city was built through farming, railroads, industry, and community.

Has anyone else stopped to look closely at these benches? Which one is your favorite?

This 1911 image looks almost unreal today: crude oil flowing through an open ditch in Texas, out in the open instead of hidden inside pipelines, tanks, refineries, and underground systems.

For more background on how Spindletop reshaped the state, Texas Happens has a good overview here: https://texashappens.com/spindletop-and-the-boom-that-changed-texas-forever/

The photo comes from Cassier’s Magazine, an engineering monthly, and appeared in an article titled “Liquid-Fuel Supply: Developments in the Oil Fields of the Western United States.” At the time, oil was rapidly becoming more than just a lighting fuel. It was being tied to internal-combustion engines, locomotives, industry, and transportation. The article treated petroleum supply as a major engineering and economic question, not just a local curiosity.

The Texas context matters. Only ten years earlier, in 1901, the Lucas Gusher at Spindletop near Beaumont helped launch the Texas oil boom. The discovery turned Beaumont into a boomtown, drew speculators and drilling companies from everywhere, and helped make Texas one of the centers of the modern petroleum industry.

By 1911, the early chaos of the boom was still visible. This image shows a rough, transitional moment in oil history: huge volumes of petroleum were being found, but the infrastructure for safely handling, storing, and transporting it was still catching up. Open ditches, overflowing tanks, derrick forests, fires, waste, and improvised field systems were all part of the early oil landscape.

It is easy to look at Texas oil history through giant companies, pipelines, refineries, and fortunes. This photo shows the messier ground-level reality: oil as a physical substance, moving through dirt, reshaping towns, transportation, land values, labor, and the environment around it.

Located in the Prototown technology autonomous zone in Lockhart, TX