History & Facts
If the History of a City is the History of the People who called it Home, this town's got more history than the Smithsonian. Harry James? Arguably the greatest swing trumpet player and Big Band Leader of all time. Babe Dedrickson? Champion women's athlete pre-WWII. Seemed to win everything in every sport. Already mentioned country star George Jones. They all called it home. And then there's good ol' Millard. Millard?

Henry Millard. He came from New Orleans. Bought 50 acres of cow land. On the Neches River. And in short, he named that spot of land Beaumont, after his wife. Because she wanted to call it home. And there ya go. Home is History. The Early years here? Farmers and cattle ranchers mainly. Thanks to it's riverport locale, it gained steam as a trading hub for lumber and rice. First commercial Rice Mill in Texas landed here in 1892. Then the Lucas Gusher blew sky high in 1901. Black gold, Texas tea. Just south of town at the salt dome. And oil, like the gold rush before it out west, changed everything. Days later, the Giants were born. Gulf. Texaco. Mobil. Turning out barrels of oil eight days a week. Dominating world oil production. Fast forward a hundred years. Revitalized central business district. Increased refinery and chemical plant construction. More government jobs. Expanding Service sector. And here we are, smack dab between Houston and Lake Charles, Louisiana on Interstate 10. Twenty-five miles up from the Gulf of Mexico. A quarter million people living here in Beaumont. All calling it home.