Just east of the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Area of Texas, the city of Beaumont, Texas is located in the Jefferson County of the state of Texas. The city of Beaumont combines with it's neighboring Texas cities of Port Arthur and Orange to make up the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Area, also dubbed the Golden Triangle.
The Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Area
The Golden Triangle, or the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Area, is located in the Southeast region of the vast land that is Texas. The city of Port Arthur is the smaller of the two cities. So where does the area get it's golden name? Well, you'd have to dig into history for that. Way back before they invented television, DVD's, IPODS or rap music, the Spindletop Oil Strike of 1901 brought the city of Beaumont, Texas more wealth than it had ever dreamed of. Naturally, everything was golden. The triangle part is less historic, that just refers to the triangular shape that Beaumont forms in conjunction with it's Beaumount-Port Arthur partners, Port Arthur and Orange.
The Beaumont-Port Arthur franchise is more evenly mixed racially than many other territories in Texas. The area population is nearly seventy percent White and almost twenty-five percent African-American (Black). Hispanics are the third largest group in this area holding just over eight percent of the overall population. The 2000 Census found the population of the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Area to be at nearly four hundred thousand.
Golden Triangle Cities and Towns
There are three counties within the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Area. There's Jefferson County, of course, but Hardin and Orange Counties (not to be confused with the infamous Orange County next door in the Sunshine State). And there's many cities and towns within the area as well, some of them with populations as low as ten thousand.
Cities and towns within the Golden Triangle are Nederland, Groves, Port Neches, Vidor, Pine Forest, Pinehurst, Pinewood Estates, Rose City, Rose Hill Acres, Little Cypress, Kountze, West Orange, Sour Lake, Silsbee, and Wildwood.
Hurricanes and The City of Beaumont
The city of Beaumont has seen it's share of storms. While September 2005's Hurricane Rita, which followed the devastating and deadly Hurricane Katrina along the American Gulf Coast, nearly destroyed, or at least damaged, every single building in town, this wasn't the first the people of Beaumont had seen of a killer storm. It all started back in 1957 with the hell raising Hurricane Audrey. Aud left almost four hundred residents of Beaumont dead and the Texas/Louisiana border dead. Then a few years later, in 1961, there was Hurricane Carla. Carla caused the state of Texas millions and nearly destroyed the state's coastline. Even today, Hurricane Carla is the strongest storm to ever lay down claim in Beaumont. There was a twenty-five year calm before Hurricane Bonnie came a callin' on June 26, 1986.
Things To Do In Beaumont
It's not all storm clouds and flood rains here in Beaumont, Texas, there's plenty of opportunities to get out and enjoy all that the coast has to offer. Beaumont Rice Mill is one of the hottest places in town for a day of shopping.