The Palestine plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
Palestine’s center stands about 490 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 370 ft to 650 ft, a difference of 280 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Pine Mountain, about 780 ft, 14 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Queen City Sand (siltstone, sandstone), from the Middle Eocene, 38 to 48 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 47×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Siltstone, sandstone. Age: Middle Eocene, 38 to 48 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Middle Eocene, 38 to 48 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Claystone, sandstone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Palestine reaches Galveston Bay and the Gulf of America by way of Town Creek, Keechie Creek and the Trinity: about 290 river miles.
Lake on the way: Woodlands Golf Course Lake.
120 miles of the trip are on the Trinity.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Palestine; river miles along the main stem, rounded.