GOVERNMENT

Local Government

Texas has 254 counties, a number which has not changed since 1931 when Loving County was organized. Loving County had a population of 60 according to the 2004 estimate by the State Data Center, compared with 164 in 1970 and a peak of 285 in 1940. It is the least-populous county in Texas. In contrast, Harris County has the most residents in Texas, with a 2006 population estimate of. . . . (for more, click).

Courtney Perry.

An engraver works on a one-dollar face plate at the currency facility in Fort Worth.

• The Money Factory in Fort Worth

There is $7 billion under a big pyramid near Blue Mound, Texas.

Digging to it will not work though, because the cash is stashed in a large vault with walls so thick that when they were built in 1990 there was no concrete to be had in all of Dallas-Fort Worth for the following three days, or so the story goes.

The bills, mostly $20s, $10s, $5s and $1s, are at the only money factory outside Washington, D.C.

The glass pyramid, a motif taken from the greenback, is atop the entrance to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s Western Currency Facility. The gray and white building on the prairie in northwest Fort Worth feels and looks as crisp as a new dollar bill and it smells like money.

Ten printing presses produce around three million notes a year, which is one-third the volume of the D.C. plant. Plans are for this second U.S. plant to do about one-half the volume of the main D.C. plant . . . (for more, click).

Wet/Dry County Map: Where sale of alcoholic beverages permitted.

In the Texas Almanac 2008 – 2009

• Federal funds distributed, listed by county.

• Federal judges and court officials.

• Texas members of Congress and addresses.

• Map of Congressional districts in Texas.

• List of Texas mayors and city managers.

• Summaries on state agencies, boards, commissions.

• U.S. military installations and numbers of personnel.

• History of the Texas National Guard

• List of top Texas officials from Spanish royal governors to 2003.

• County and district officials.