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Anna Rohleder of Forbes said "Among Houston's wealthy denizens social life centers on charity events and the arts." (21.6) 78.0 An expedition commanded by Pizarro and his brothers explored south from what is today Panama reaching Inca territory by 1526. After one more expedition in 1529 Pizarro received royal approval to conquer the region and be its viceroy the approval read: "In July 1529 the queen of Spain signed a charter allowing Pizarro to conquer the Incas Pizarro was named governor and captain of all conquests in New Castile" the Viceroyalty of Peru was established in 1542 encompassing all Spanish holdings in South America. As with other parts of Texas and/or the South other popular sporting activities in East Texas include rodeo (including PRCA) hunting and fishing Prominent rodeos in East Texas are held in Beaumont Nacogdoches Paris Longview Gladewater Huntsville Lufkin Athens Palestine Lindale etc East Texas contains several award-winning lakes for sport fishing including Toledo Bend Reservoir Lake Sam Rayburn Lake Livingston Lake Fork Reservoir Lake Tawakoni etc East Texans have a long tradition in outdoors sporting and observe the opening day of deer season as a near religious holiday, (131) 4.89 4 See also, Baytown Airport in unincorporated east Harris County north of Baytown. The South Texas Intermediate Sanction Facility Unit a parole confinement facility for males operated by Global Expertise in Outsourcing is in downtown Houston west of Minute Maid Park. 1880 1,591,749 94.5% Arts 6.3 Foreign relations, The Sharpstown scandal which concerned government bribes involving real estate developer Frank Sharp (neighborhood of Sharpstown is named after him) occurred in 1970 and 1971, Culturally Southeast Texas is more closely akin to the Gulf Coast Louisiana or even Mississippi than it is to West Texas Much of modern Southeast Texas culture has its roots in traditions that go back for generations Southeast Texas is consistent with much of the rest of rural Texas in that it is a part of the Bible Belt an area in which many inhabitants have strongly Fundamentalist Christian beliefs Many of the largest cities in East Texas outside Houston still follow a rural Southern way of life especially in dialect mannerisms religion and cuisine!

. . Texas declared its secession from the United States on February 1 1861 and joined the Confederate States of America on March 2 1861 With few battles in its territory Texas was mainly a "supply state" for the Confederate forces until mid-1863 when the Union capture of the Mississippi River made large movements of men horses or cattle impossible Texas regiments fought in every major battle throughout the war the last battle of the Civil War the Battle of Palmito Ranch was fought in Texas on May 12 1865 the 2nd Texas Cavalry Battalion (U.S.) (one of only two from the state) took part. All of East Texas also lies within the Gulf Coastal Plain but with less uniformity than the climate with rolling hills in the north and flat coastal plains in the south Local vegetation also varies from north to south with the lower third consisting of the temperate grassland extending from South Texas to South Louisiana the northern two-thirds of the region is dominated by temperate forest known as the Piney Woods which extends over 23,500 square miles (61,000 km2) the Piney Woods are part of a much larger region of pine-hardwood forest that extends into Louisiana Arkansas and Oklahoma the Piney Woods area thins out as it nears the Gulf of Mexico West of the Piney Woods are the ranchlands and remnant oak forests of the East Central Texas forests ecoregion. (123) 5.17 The entire Reliant Park complex was scheduled to be emptied of hurricane evacuees by September 17 2005 Originally the Astrodome was planned to be used to house evacuees until December However the surrounding parking lots were needed for the first Houston Texans home game Arrangements were made to help Katrina evacuees find apartments both in Houston and elsewhere in the United States by September 16 2005 the last of the hurricane evacuees living in the Astrodome had been moved out either to the neighboring Reliant Arena or to permanent housing north of Houston as of September 20 2005 the remaining Katrina evacuees were relocated to Arkansas due to Hurricane Rita.