For another comparison, the state of Australia I live in has 3x the land area of Texas, a current population of 2.9 million that largely live in the one concentrated urban area, farms and cattle stations large than those in the US, and had people walk out of the desert than had never met or heard of non indigenous people until that point in time in the mid 1980s.
I grew up in one of the more remote corners when the state population was less than 800 thousand and the local population within a few hours drive was barely a thousand or more..
Western Australia, a unique place that is part Texas, part Alaska, part Silicon Valley and part something of Europe.
It should be a country of its own, and might as well could be with the most isolated capital city in the world, but the Austealian Federal govt keep fucking it up, despite it being the real cash cow of the country.
I grew up in one of the more remote corners when the state population was less than 800 thousand and the local population within a few hours drive was barely a thousand or more..