Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Beaumont
POP 118,548
Besides the petrochemical industry, Beaumont has developed a busy port on the Neches
River that services offshore oil-drilling platforms. At local museums you can learn most
everything you ever wanted to know about local oil and gas. Living here largely takes
place along the interstate. Downtown is pleasant, but mostly quiet apart from a block of
upscale bars. Beaumont lies 80 miles east of Houston on the I-10.
Sights & Activities
Texas Energy Museum
( 409-833-5100;
www.texasenergymuseum.org
;
600 Main St; adult/child $5/3; 9am-5pm Tue-Sat, 1-5pm Sun)
Downstairs, animated movies and interactive exhibits explain the science of hydrocar-
bons, petrochemicals and oil extraction in a fairly entertaining fashion; upstairs exhibits
cover the Spindletop discovery and the growth of the state's oil industry - these are well
done, with movie-action mannequins.
MUSEUM
Spindletop & Gladys City Boomtown Museum
(
http://spindletop.org
;
5550 Jimmy Simmons Blvd, off US 69; adult/child $5/3; 10-5pm Tue-Sat, 1-5pm Sun)
Several prospectors saw promise in the salt dome named Spindletop, but it took nearly a
decade before an exploratory well leased by Anthony Lucas blew a fountain of oil. Al-
most overnight Gladys City, full of wildcat oil explorers, sprang up. Soon wooden oil der-
ricks crowded together like trees in a forest. This intriguing, open-air museum recreates
part of the original boomtown.
A local photo studio in business at the time is to thank for much of the amazing docu-
mentation at the museum. Only one thing is missing - add 800,000 barrels of spilled oil
and then you'd really know what it felt like back then.
MUSEUM
McFaddin-Ward House
( 409-832-2134;
www.mcfaddin-ward.org
; 1906 McFaddin Ave, visitor center 1906 Calder St; tours $3;
10am-2:30pm Tue-Sat, 1-3pm Sun)
Visit this fabulous 1906 mansion to see the excess made pos-
sible by the Spindletop oil boom. Members of the McFaddin family lived in the house un-
til 1984; their rich antique furnishings fill the lavish rooms.
HOUSE
