Museum District, Beaumont, TX
Tuesday, 20 Nov
As we turned off the main road for the Edison Museum, we saw a large fire hydrant. After visiting the Edison Museum, we walked the 2 blocks and learned the fire hydrant is part of a memorial to fallen fire fighters. We then toured the Fire Museum (www.fmotassn.com), housed in the Beaumont Central Fire Station built in 1927, which chronicled the history of firefighting from the 1850s to the present. Exhibits included a 1909 aerial ladder truck, historical fire trucks, where the term “fire plug” originated, and Dalmation’s as firehouse dogs.
We then walked a few blocks to the Texas Energy Museum (www.texasenergymuseum.org) which portrayed petroleum geology, energy and science behind the story of Texas oil. A number of displays described various events in different periods of time, and the role petroleum played in each of the periods. Exhibits also presented the great Spindletop gusher of 1901, which was the first major oil discovery in Texas. Within a short period of time, the six Spindletop wells produced as much crude oil as the entire rest of the world.
As we walked back to Sprinty, it was very noticeable the lack of traffic in this part of downtown Beaumont. The atmosphere was that of a Sunday morning in a large metropolitan city, not a workday.
Visiting the Texas Energy Museum piqued our interest in checking out the Spindletop/Glady’s City Museum (www.spindletop.org) located a few miles away on the campus of Lamar University. And pretty close to the original Spindletop well that started the Texas oil business. The main exhibits are reconstruction buildings that represent businesses that operated in the original Gladys City which sprang to life when oil was discovered. It was a nice addition to what we learned at the Texas Energy Museum.
We then drove a few miles to stay at Gulf Coast RV Resort. The resort consists of 125 full-hook-up, pull-through sites. Convenient to I-10, the park has been rated 5 starts by all the reviewers on All Stays. And with our Passport America membership, we got 50% off - so $22.50/night which also includes continental breakfast in the morning (like a Hampton Inn). However, convenience comes with some road noise from I-10. Initially, we appreciated that we were located 12 rows back from the interstate - that was until we heard the train horn. After the train horn, we did not pay much attention to the road noise as we could not hear it over the train horn. When the train horn sounded just before going to bed, we were sure we were in for a long night. It turned out to be the last train horn of the night.
With cool, breezy weather forecast for the day, as well as Darrell nursing a pulled muscle, we made today a sightseeing day. Using the Offbeat Attractions app, we looked for opportunities that might be interesting, and found several museums in Beaumont, TX that piqued our interest.
With no golf planned, we had a lazy start to the day, then pointed Sprinty in a westward direction mostly on blue highways to downtown Beaumont. Our first destination was the Edison Museum. Arriving there, we looked for a parking place, and found an end space in a line of parallel parking spots. What surprised us was that the space allocated was considerable - Sprinty At 24 feet long fit inside the lines (not counting the bike rack). Maybe an example of “Everything’s Bigger in Texas”?
The Edison Museum (www.edisonmuseum.org) is a small museum housed in what used to be the Travis Street Substation built in 1929 as the Gulf States Utilities Company worked to provide dependable and economic electric power. It is the only Thomas Edison museum west of the Mississippi River. Among the fascinating things we learned included that Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents, the greatest number ever held by any one person. In addition to things we usually remember Edison for (incandescent lightbulb, phonograph, motion picture camera), he also cultivated thousand soft varieties of plants to find a source for rubber (goldenrod); opened mining in New Jersey, made concrete houses, and invented an electric car that in 1911 could go 60 miles between charging. He even invented the fluoroscope (which photographs x-rays) and refused to patent it because it was so badly needed by doctors everywhere. Edison was practically deaf due to a childhood incident with a train conductor - he communicated with his second wife by tapping Morse code on her wrist.
As we turned off the main road for the Edison Museum, we saw a large fire hydrant. After visiting the Edison Museum, we walked the 2 blocks and learned the fire hydrant is part of a memorial to fallen fire fighters. We then toured the Fire Museum (www.fmotassn.com), housed in the Beaumont Central Fire Station built in 1927, which chronicled the history of firefighting from the 1850s to the present. Exhibits included a 1909 aerial ladder truck, historical fire trucks, where the term “fire plug” originated, and Dalmation’s as firehouse dogs.
We then walked a few blocks to the Texas Energy Museum (www.texasenergymuseum.org) which portrayed petroleum geology, energy and science behind the story of Texas oil. A number of displays described various events in different periods of time, and the role petroleum played in each of the periods. Exhibits also presented the great Spindletop gusher of 1901, which was the first major oil discovery in Texas. Within a short period of time, the six Spindletop wells produced as much crude oil as the entire rest of the world.
As we walked back to Sprinty, it was very noticeable the lack of traffic in this part of downtown Beaumont. The atmosphere was that of a Sunday morning in a large metropolitan city, not a workday.
Visiting the Texas Energy Museum piqued our interest in checking out the Spindletop/Glady’s City Museum (www.spindletop.org) located a few miles away on the campus of Lamar University. And pretty close to the original Spindletop well that started the Texas oil business. The main exhibits are reconstruction buildings that represent businesses that operated in the original Gladys City which sprang to life when oil was discovered. It was a nice addition to what we learned at the Texas Energy Museum.
We then drove a few miles to stay at Gulf Coast RV Resort. The resort consists of 125 full-hook-up, pull-through sites. Convenient to I-10, the park has been rated 5 starts by all the reviewers on All Stays. And with our Passport America membership, we got 50% off - so $22.50/night which also includes continental breakfast in the morning (like a Hampton Inn). However, convenience comes with some road noise from I-10. Initially, we appreciated that we were located 12 rows back from the interstate - that was until we heard the train horn. After the train horn, we did not pay much attention to the road noise as we could not hear it over the train horn. When the train horn sounded just before going to bed, we were sure we were in for a long night. It turned out to be the last train horn of the night.
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