The lower Neches River area was first settled by Spanish and French fur trappers in the early 1800s; the original Beaumont city charter was issued by the Republic of Texas in 1838. For the next 60 years the town supported itself almost exclusively by cutting the abundant local timber for lumber mills and growing (and milling) rice.
The Neches River provided a convenient outlet to the Gulf of Mexico via Sabine Pass, so Beaumont products were able to reach a wide market. On January 10, 1901, in the nearby Spindletop Oil Field, the first great Texas oil well blew. No less than 600 oil companies sprang up over the next year or two, including a few that became industry giants: the Texas Company (Texaco), Guffey Petroleum Company (Gulf, now Chevron), Magnolia Petroleum Company (Mobil) and Standard Oil (Exxon).
Today the Beaumont area forms one of the greatest concentrations of petroleum refineries in the nation.