Beaumont, Texas Part 2

While visiting Downtown Beaumont, we could see broken windows remaining in some of the buildings as a reminder of Hurricanes Rita and Ike.

Next, we visited the Texas Energy Museum where they had just had Dinosaur Day the day before.

This interactive movie takes you from the Gulf of Mexico to the Port of Beaumont, the same route ships carrying barrels of oil take.

Since it was the Energy of Museum and the State of Texas, there were obviously a lot of old oil and gas artifacts.

This tank wagon was used to deliver 500 gallons of kerosene from 1910 to 1926.

This pump was from a time when Regular meant LEADED, not UNleaded.

Driving around Beaumont, foundations can be found where houses stood prior to the hurricanes.

Many houses have still not been repaired and reinhabited.

Alfred E. Neuman is Beaumont, Texas' Muffler Man.

The gusher at Spindletop, discovered in 1901, was the first significant oil discovery along the Gulf Coast.

We visited the Spindletop Gladys City Boomtown Museum to learn some more about Spindletop's history.

The living history museum contains over a dozen reproductions of historical buildings from the era of Spindletop's boom.

The first company to drill on Spindletop was the Gladys City Oil, Gas & Manufacturing Company, named after a little girl named Gladys Bingham.

Gladys received two shares of the company in 1901 which she later sold for over $250,000. That was in early 20th century dollars!

The museum was hit by Hurricane Rita in 2005 and closed for about two years for repairs.

For more pictures, click here pictures 75-166.

To be continued...