Today over 300,000 people call Southeast Texas home. Located on Interstate-10 just 90 miles east of Houston and 25 miles west of the Louisiana border, the tri-county region has a history that makes it a destination all its own.
Centuries before the community gained notoriety as the epicenter of the American oil boom, famed conquistador Hernando De Soto and his men scavenged for sun-hardened natural deposits of crude oil on the shores of Sabine Lake to caulk their boats during their 1543 quest to expand Spanish territory and treasure. Since then, the region's history has demonstrated a unique entrepreneurial spirit and cast of exceptional and colorful characters.
Intriguingly, there may be more than just black gold beneath the bayous and beaches. According to local lore, legendary pirate Jean Lafitte buried large portions of his fortune along the Sabine and Neches rivers in the early 19th-century. When his band of swashbucklers was disbanded in 1820, many left their Galveston Island home and traveled inland to settle the lands in Hardin, Jefferson and Orange counties. Lafitte’s legacy is one of hero, traitor and consummate man of affairs. Whether or not the fantastic rumors of buried treasure are true, few figures have so captured the region’s collective imagination.
It’s no coincidence that the region's inception coincided with the commencement of local commerce. In 1835, businessmen Henry Millard, Joseph Pulsifer and Thomas Huling established an area mercantile when the area was still an unorganized settlement. Not long after, the plan for a city was laid out along the bluffs above the Neches River and given the name of Beaumont – the maiden name of Millard’s beloved late wife.
On October 26, 1835, the Telegraph and Texas Register had this to say about the community. “We are informed that a town has lately been laid out on the tidewater of the Neches River. Its situation is said to be one of the most delightful in Texas . . . It has received the name of Beaumont, which, from the description of the place, strikes our fancy as very appropriate.”
Beaumont quickly developed into a small town economically based on rice and ranching, as well as the logging taking place in the vast piney woods to the north. This area has since come to be known as Hardin County.
The Oil Age was born in Beaumont on January 10, 1901 when wildcatter and eventual oil magnate Anthony F. Lucas struck the world’s first great oil well on the Spindletop salt dome south of town. Crude sprayed from the “Lucas Gusher” more than 160 feet into the air and Beaumont gained wealth and fame overnight. Soon Beaumont’s population rocketed from 9,000 to 50,000, and by 1902 there were nearly 300 wells on Spindletop hill and 600 individual oil companies. The little city on the Neches had assumed its identity as a bona fide boomtown.
The area continued to boom into the 1920s. The largest skyline between Houston and New Orleans grew in downtown Beaumont thanks to the “Second Spindletop” oil boom and local company Yount-Lee led by civic hero and renaissance man, Frank Yount. When the stock market crash came in 1929, the local economy was so strong two years elapsed before the effects of the Great Depression were truly felt by the citizens. Even in dire times, the people of Beaumont and the surrounding areas found strength in each other, most notably when Yount reached into his own pocket to help the City of Beaumont make payroll for Christmas 1932.
Currently, the cities of Southeast Texas are home to one of the world’s largest refining and petrochemical centers, but it has also become a source for sophisticated medical instruments, precision industrial equipment, and back-office call centers that appreciate the low cost of living and skilled workforce. With $15-20 billion in industrial investments poised for injection into the local economy, Southeast Texas is prepared for whatever the future holds.
The history of our region is the story of the American Dream. It has cultivated a vibrant blend of Creole, Cajun, and Texas cultures, never losing the southern hospitality and entrepreneurial spirit of its early days. With 16 of the region’s 34 museums in Beaumont, featuring everything from energy to art, botanical gardens in Orange County and the Big Thicket National Preserve in Hardin County, we commemorate and memorialize the people and progress that have made our area rich with history.