BEAUMONT, a city of Texas, U.S.A., at the head of naviga tion on the Neches river, 28m. from the Gulf of Mexico and Tom. N.E. of Galveston; the county-seat of Jefferson county. It is on the Old Spanish Trail, is served by the Kansas City Southern, the Missouri Pacific, the Santa Fe, and the Southern Pacific railways, and by coastwise and deep-sea steamers. The population was in r9oo; 20,64o in 1910; 40,422 in 192o; and was 57,732 in 193o. Nearly a third are negroes.
Beaumont is the commercial centre of south-eastern Texas and south-western Louisiana, a region of dense pine and cypress for ests, extensive rice plantations, and some of the most important oil-fields of the country. Oil refineries, rice-mills, saw and shingle mills, and sash and door factories constitute the leading industries. The output of the 77 establishments within the city in 1927 was valued at $12,193,324. In the same year 607 ocean-going steamers entered the port, and its total traffic, consisting chiefly of crude oil and its products, amounted to 5,239,766 tons, valued at 202,590. The assessed valuation of property in 1926 was $51, 366,280, and bank debits in 1926 amounted to $258,931,000. The city has a commission-manager form of government.
Beaumont was settled in 1828, and was chartered as a city in 188i. Oil was struck in 1901, and in the next 25 years its popu lation increased more than fivefold.