Port of Beaumont

Duane's take

Now, this one comes straight from the official marker record, and I'll tell it to you just the way the history lays it out. Beaumont, Texas. Forty-one miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico.

You might not think of it as a port town, but friend, that city has been movin' goods on water since the very year it was founded, 1837. Back then it was schooners and sternwheelers, working their way up and down the Neches River. Elegant, slow, and patient, the way the river itself tends to be.

But patience has its limits, and so did those vessels, because the water between the river's mouth and the Gulf, crossing Sabine Lake, ran only three feet deep. Three feet. That meant only the shallowest-draft boats could make the trip.

For decades, that was the ceiling on Beaumont's ambitions. After 1852, surveyors started recommending improvements. By 1876, dredging had begun at Sabine Pass, cutting a channel twelve feet deep.

Progress. Real progress. Then came 1897, and with it, competition.

A new railroad came through Beaumont, but it didn't stop there. It kept right on going and terminated at Sabine Lake, and right at that terminus a new city was established: Port Arthur. A twenty-five-foot-deep canal was dug from the Gulf straight to that new city.

Twenty-five feet deep, compared to Beaumont's twelve. Now that got people's attention. Other railroads noticed.

Beaumont businesses noticed. And rather than watching Port Arthur sail off into the future, they threw their weight behind extending that new canal and deep-dredging the Neches River itself. In 1911, Beaumont put up half the cost, splitting it with the federal government, to dredge a twenty-five-foot-deep channel of its own.

That is not a small check to write. One year later, Mayor Emmett A. Fletcher, born in 1867 and who would live until 1943, appointed a Wharf and Dock Commission.

Its first chairman was Charles E. Walden, born in 1865, who would live until 1938. Two men who understood exactly what was at stake.

They had a port to build. And in 1916, it opened. The deep water port and the Sabine-Neches waterway, officially open for business.

The Port of Beaumont Navigation District came next, created by the Texas Legislature in 1949. And the story kept on growing. In 1971, local citizens approved bonds to construct the Harbor Island Marine Terminal.

A city that started with schooners on a three-foot lake, forty-one miles from the Gulf, eventually dug its way all the way to the sea. Turns out patience wasn't the ceiling after all. It was just the starting point.

What the marker says

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)