Mont Belvieu, Texas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mont Belvieu is a city in Chambers County, Texas, United States. It is just north of Interstate 10 along State Highway 146. The population was 2,324 at the 2000 census.

1 Geography
2 Historical development
3 Demographics
4 Education
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Geography

Mont Belvieu is located at 29°51′37″N, 94°52′28″W (29.860242, -94.874535)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 38.6 km² (14.9 mi²). 37.6 km² (14.5 mi²) of it is land and 0.9 km² (0.4 mi²) of it (2.42%) is water.

[edit] Historical development

The first permanent settler to the area was Amos Barber, a rancher and cattleman who built the first home on the hill in 1849. The community that grew around this homestead was originally called Barber’s Hill. However in 1890, the post office chose the name Mont Belvieu as there were other offices with similar names.^[1] After the discovery of oil at Spindletop in 1901, the hill was drilled numerous times without success before 1916. The first commercial oil production at the site began at the Barber’s Hill Oilfield in 1918, and the following year, the Goose Creek and Dayton Railroad was completed through Mont Belvieu. By the end of the 1920’s, large quantities of oil were found at greater depths. In 1930, the first major producing well struck through the salt dome at 5000 feet.^[2] The following year, over eight million barrels of oil would be recovered. The Warren Petroleum Company built an underground salt dome storage terminal in 1955. This facility is the largest of its type for natural gas liquids in North America.^[3] With 26 underground caverns, it has a total storage capacity of forty-three million barrels of propane, butane, ethane, natural gas and other products.
In November of 1985, an explosion occurred which killed two workers and threatened the town over the salt dome. Since then, more effort has been done to get the nearby petrochemical industries to buy out residential homes in the immediate proximity. By 1990, two hundred families were bought out by twelve companies which helped relocate the community two miles to the east.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 2,324 people, 805 households, and 664 families residing in the city. The population density was 61.8/km² (160.0/mi²). There were 888 housing units at an average density of 23.6/km² (61.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 90.96% White, 4.26% African American, 0.69% Native American, 0.43% Asian, 2.50% from other races, and 1.16% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.50% of the population.

There were 805 households out of which 49.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 69.2% were married couples living together, 8.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 17.4% were non-families. 15.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.88 and the average family size was 3.19.

In the city the population was spread out with 31.5% under the age of 18, 7.3% from 18 to 24, 32.2% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 5.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 98.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $54,732, and the median income for a family was $64,808. Males had a median income of $47,614 versus $29,537 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,415. About 6.4% of families and 7.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.7% of those under age 18 and 18.8% of those age 65 or over.