Will Battleship Texas move from its current location near the San Jacinto Battleground State historic site to Beaumont?
Battleship Texas To Beaumont? This week the Beaumont City Council received a letter from the Beaumont Board of Realtors endorsing the idea of bringing the Battleship Texas to Beaumont.
Other organizations that have endorsed bringing this historic ship to berth in the Neches River include:* Jefferson County Historical Commission* Neches River Festival* Beaumont Main Street.
USS Texas 1892 & (BB-35) : A History In Pictures
The ship is owned by the State of Texas and the costs of maintaining it is the responsibility of the Battleship Texas Foundation. No maintenance expenses would be put on the shoulders of local taxpayers. It will have to be towed and placed in it’s new berth. A dock and mooring infrastructure will need to be built. But that cost would not burden the citizens of Beaumont.
If the ship is berthed in the Neches River as depicted in this picture, Texans would see the ship from the Purple Heart Memorial Bridge! The bridge is a very busy roadway that has over 200,000 people a day crossing it on Interstate 10.
As a point of reference, the USS Alabama, outside of Mobile, AL, had over 400,000 people visit it in 2019.
It is expected that the USS Texas will be a huge tourist draw that would generate over ten million dollars annually in direct and indirect economic benefits to the City of Beaumont.
USS Texas (BB-35) is a museum ship and former United States Navy New York-class battleship. USS Texas (BB-35) launched on 18 May 1912 and commissioned on 12 March 1914.
Texas saw action in Mexican waters following the “Tampico Incident” and made numerous sorties into the North Sea during World War I. Furthermore, in World War II, Texas escorted war convoys across the Atlantic. And later shelled Axis-held beaches for the North African campaign and the Normandy Landings before being transferred to the Pacific Theater late in 1944 to provide naval gunfire support during the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Battleship Texas To Beaumont? Written by Mike Getz
