![]() The rest of Texas resided in the Central Time Zone, which is roughly centered on the 90th meridian west. That made a great deal of sense, given that this meridian passes through Texas just 120 miles east of El Paso. El Paso and most of the Trans-Pecos region were situated in the new Mountain Time Zone, which uses the 105th meridian west of Greenwich as its basis. The country was thenceforth divided into four time zones-Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. But as railroad trains grew faster and more prevalent, and the need to better coordinate those locomotives’ comings and goings became more urgent, railroad companies thought it wise to sync up the clocks. Set to “high noon,” the moment when the sun was perceived to be highest in the sky above a specific locality, these manifold clock settings passed muster for most of the nineteenth century. Prior to this big synchronization more than a hundred different local times were kept across the country. Somewhat surprisingly, it wasn’t until November 18, 1883, that the first system of standardized time was instituted across the United States. Now it’s all Google Calendars, Apple Watches, cesium 133 isotopes, and hyper-precise atomic clocks. Though merely observing recurring seasonal changes, taking note of the annual movements of animals, and glancing at the sundial once sufficed as ways of measuring the passage of the hours, days, weeks, months, and years, today we’re more demanding. Many years ago, the passing of the sun and moon across the sky was tracked in a much less precise manner than it is today. ![]() And, well, before you knew it, there the Texanist was, tumbling headlong down a deep, deep rabbit hole of internet research the likes of which he hasn’t seen since formulating a reply to that gentleman from East Texas who inquired a few years ago about why flour tortillas are readily available in a variety of sizes while corn tortillas usually come in just that one diameter.įor a little perspective, let’s take a moment for a brief history lesson on the keeping of time in Texas. And about the longitudinal divisions of the earth, and the four-dimensional space-time continuum, and Zeno’s paradoxes and other heady matters. And that got him to thinking about time zones in general, which got him to thinking about the keeping of time in general. ![]() In sitting down to think about exactly how to address it, the Texanist initially wondered how long the furthest reaches of West Texas have resided in a different time zone than the rest of Texas. Q: What would it take to move the little chunk of far West Texas where I live out of the Mountain Time Zone and into the Central Time Zone like the rest of the state?Ī: This deceptively mundane inquiry proved to be much more stimulative than it appeared on first read. This column originally published online on March 1, 2021.
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