Time for some more San Antonio Fun Facts. This time from Stephanie Brail at the Rent.com website.
Facts That Only Real Locals Know
“Countdown City” is the nickname of Antonio, TX, because of its main area code of 210, but Orlando, FL, can also claim the name due to the area code 321. However, if you are a stickler about it, San Antonio got their area code first in the early ’90s and 210 actually counts down to zero instead of just one, so San Antonio wins!
San Antonio is the oldest city in Texas and celebrated its 300th anniversary on May 1, 2018.
Dallas was more well-known as the second-biggest big city in Texas (thanks to that old TV show named “Dallas”), but San Antonio is actually the second-largest city in Texas after Houston with almost 1.5 million residents.
San Antonio surpassed Dallas as the second biggest city in Texas after the 2010 census count. Dallas is now the third-largest city in Texas followed by Austin, with Fort Worth closing in at fifth place.
Another San Antonio fact is it’s also the second-largest city in the south and the seventh-largest city in the United States.
Texans love their homegrown fast food joint, Whataburger, based in San Antonio. Yet, some locals pronounced it “waterburger” when they were kids and still can’t break the habit as adults.
If you’ve lived in San Antonio for a while, you probably don’t call it “San Antone.”
Grocery store chain H-E-B’s answer to Whole Foods, Central Market, is often called “Gucci-B,” a San Antonio fact. (To be fair, Central Market is a bit pricier than H-E-B but is a little cheaper than Whole Foods.)
San Antonio is home to the oldest miniature golf course in the United States at Cool Crest Miniature Golf. It was originally opened in 1929 and is now a historical landmark.
Before the San Antonio built River Walk, the area was a place to stay away from due to high crime and river rats. Yes, river rats. Since this is Texas, you can imagine their size.
After the Alamo fell, General Santa Ana of Mexico tried to have the Alamo burned down so it would not become a shrine to the fallen soldiers. Each time the Mexicans went to try to destroy the building, ghostly specters, some with flaming swords in hand, allegedly scared off the would-be arsonists. Thus, ghosts are the reason why the Alamo still stands today.
Spanish is the second-most spoken language in San Antonio, but with a diverse population, German, Polish and Czech are also popular languages in the region. More recently, Chinese and Vietnamese, as well as Hindi, displaced those.
San Antonio is also home to the biggest Virgin Mary mosaic in the world, found at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. Do you know those tall votive candles with pictures of Mother Mary you can get at the grocery store for a buck? (Well, maybe a buck-fifty these days.) This mosaic is a replica of such a candle on a grand scale.
Speaking of big, how could we forget Buc-ee’s, the favorite waystation of Texas travelers? New Braunfels (either a suburb or satellite city of San Antonio, depending on how you look at it) has the largest Buc-ee’s on the planet. This Buc-ee’s location is the world’s biggest convenience store. It contains a whopping 67,000 square feet of retail sales space, which could house 22 7-Elevens or 2 Whole Foods stores.
Once you’ve gotten some fudge and jerky at Buc-ee’s, stop by Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum to gape and awe at this amazing collection of decorated toilet seats. Yes, San Antonio has a museum dedicated entirely to artsy toilet seats.