Texas Beyond History

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• Learn more about African Americans, American history, American Indians, anthropology, archaeology, Texas, and Texas history.

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The rich historical and cultural legacy of Texas is explored in this website. The Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin has taken on this project with 13 other organizations to interpret and document this heritage.

The website Texas Beyond History “covers not only the prehistoric and native peoples, but also much of the early history of the Spanish, French, Mexican, and Anglo explorers, missionaries, soldiers, miners, traders, and settlers who lived and often died in Texas. And later history, too—that of German farmers, Black freedmen, and Mexican-American laborers among many others.”

On the homepage of this site, visitors can mouse-over specific places on a map of Texas and get a brief synopsis of that place. By clicking on that location, they are taken to an in-depth exhibit which has maps, images, factoids, links to corresponding websites, quotes from interviews of people who lived during that time, lesson plans, and much more.

The site also has special exhibits on the ancient people of Texas, Native Americans, frontier forts, and stone tools. The “Prehistoric Texas” section is a work in progress. There are eight regions of the state that will be explored. Currently, only Plateaus and Canyonlands has been developed. It has a map of the area with pan and zoom capability. There are four views of the map with clickable locations which have information and images for each.

Dr. Dirt invites kids to pop the balloons he holds which will take them to activities, cool links, vocabulary, games, fantastic facts, and an Ask Dr. Dirt section. The “Imagine It” activity explains the foods and cooking methods used by native people. A food wheel shows the difference in foods eaten in the past with what we eat today.

“ By using archaeology as a lens for discovery” educators have a rich assortment of resources to teach their students. They may click on a subject area to find K-12 lesson plans which have been written by teachers who have been enrolled in the graduate program at the University of Texas at Austin. These plans are based on the goals and objectives of the Texas state curriculum. Each lesson can be downloaded and printed. There are also unit plans that incorporate primary source materials from “archaeological investigations” in the state.

A Teacher’s Guide lists all Texas historic eras from the prehistoric to the nineteenth century Texas frontier. By clicking on a topic under a specific time, teachers will be taken to the specific exhibit exploring that time on the website.

Although this site explores the history of Texas, it is an important resource for teachers and students of other states who are studying the ancient peoples of North America, Native Americans, United States frontier history, archaeology, and many other subjects.