Port of Beaumont
Beaumont, Jefferson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The city of Beaumont, 41 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, was served from its founding in 1837 by schooners and sternwheelers navigating the Neches River. The three-foot depth of Sabine Lake between the river's mouth and the Gulf limited passage to shallow-draft vessels. Surveys after 1852 recommended navigation improvements, and dredging of a 12-foot-deep channel at Sabine Pass began in 1876. Competition appeared in 1897 when a new railroad passed through Beaumont to terminate at Sabine Lake. There Port Arthur was established and a 25-foot-deep canal was dug from the Gulf to the new city. Other railroads and Beaumont businesses then supported extension of the new canal and deep-dredging of the Neches. In 1911 Beaumont shared half the cost with the Federal government of dredging a 25-foot-deep channel. One year later a Wharf and Dock Commission was appointed by Mayor Emmett A. Fletcher (1867-1943); Charles E. Walden (1865-1938) was its first chairman. The deep water port and Sabine-Neches waterway were officially opened in 1916. The Port of Beaumont Navigation District was created by the Texas Legislature in 1949. Local citizens approved bonds in 1971 to construct Harbor Island Marine Terminal. (Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
From its 1837 founding, Beaumont was served by schooners and sternwheelers on the Neches River, but the shallow three-foot depth of Sabine Lake long capped its ambitions. Dredging at Sabine Pass began in 1876, and after the rival deepwater port at Port Arthur appeared in 1897, Beaumont interests pushed for their own channel—sharing the cost with the federal government to deepen the Neches to 25 feet. The deep-water port and Sabine-Neches waterway officially opened in 1916, growing into a major navigation district.
Why it matters
The port turned an inland town into a gateway of the Gulf Coast, a transformation supercharged by the Spindletop oil era and the shipping it demanded.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Mayor Emmett A. Fletcher
- · Charles E. Walden
Related events
- · Opening of the Sabine-Neches waterway (1916)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Texas' First Rice Mill
Beaumont, TX
Along the Gulf prairie of Southeast Texas, early rice growers depended so entirely on rainfall that their crop earned the wry name "Providence Rice." J. E. Broussard changed that: a pioneer grower and irrigator, he founded the Beaumont Rice Mill in 1892 and helped organize the Rice Millers' Association, spurring mills across neighboring counties. The present mill building went up in 1907, and Broussard's descendants have kept the firm running ever since.
Spindletop to Port Arthur Oil Pipeline Corridor
Port Arthur, TX
On January 10, 1901, the Lucas Gusher blew in at Spindletop near Beaumont, flowing at an estimated 100,000 barrels a day and launching the Texas oil boom. To move that flood of crude, the Port Arthur Townsite and Land Company deeded a pipeline right-of-way to James Guffey and John Galey, whose line fed a refinery that became the Gulf Refining Company of Texas. Within three years more than 500 miles of pipeline crossed southeast Texas, and the corridor helped make Port Arthur a major refining and shipping center.
Rainbow Bridge
Port Arthur, TX
By the early 20th century the marshy country where the Neches River meets the Gulf had become one of America's great petrochemical corridors, and the boomtowns of Jefferson and Orange counties needed a way across the water. After a seven-year campaign led by a local newspaper and an American Legion post, Depression-era public works money finally financed a state highway bridge, dedicated in 1938. Engineer G. G. Wickline threaded nearly a mile and a half of soft river bottom and raised the central span high enough to clear a Navy ship carrying a moored dirigible — briefly the highest roadbed over tidal water anywhere. A 1957 Lions Club contest gave it the name everyone now uses: the Rainbow Bridge.
The Woodworth House
Port Arthur, TX
Built in 1906 for banker and civic leader R. H. Woodworth, this Classical Revival mansion—known as Rose Hill—rose on the edge of the brand-new town of Port Arthur, founded a decade earlier by railroad man Arthur Stilwell. Woodworth had come from Chicago with his bride Mary, entered real estate and banking, and served as the city's third mayor in 1902. With its columned portico and wide verandas, the home hosted the couple's social gatherings until Mary's daughter Phebe gave it to the city in 1947 to serve as a community center.