No place has a sense of place like Texas, and that sentiment is indelibly tied to the state’s fascinating past. Texans are proud of their history, and for good reason. The state was once its own country, and many modern-day residents would likely welcome a return to the idea of isolationism. Above all, there’s something reverential about the pride Texans take in their heritage, from the Native-American contribution of the word tejas (meaning friends), to the state’s nearly 400-year-old Spanish mission buildings, to the aforementioned Republic of Texas, to the role Texas played in the Civil War, to its ranching and oil heritage.

Being proud of what a state represents is somewhat distinctive to Texas. Not to take away anything from other states’ history, but a term like “Vermont pride” or the concept of a proud Idaho heritage just don’t resonate the way Texas Pride does. It’s a badge of honor, and the state’s rough-and-tumble past makes it a deserved title.

Everyone knows about the Alamo, but those who set out to discover Texas’s dynamic heritage will encounter fascinating stories, like the 4,000-year-old Native-American pictographs in a rock shelter along the Rio Grande, the discovery of the 1686 Gulf Coast shipwreck of French explorer La Salle, the influence of Mexican vaqueros on Texas’s cowboys, and life in an oil boomtown in the 1930s. And that’s just scraping the surface.