On a tour through southeast Texas, we stopped in this cute little town called Nederland (pronounced Neederland). The tagline in the header is my own. Usually, the cities have their own.
Nederland was settled in 1897 by Dutch immigrants along the rail line of the Kansas City Railway. They were mostly rice and dairy farmers. In 1907, there was an overproduction of rice and that market collapsed. Some of the Dutch moved away. Meanwhile, in 1901, the nearby Spindletop gusher came in creating other blue collar jobs and inducing immigrants from Louisiana to settle here, hence the Cajun influence.
The Dutch Windmill Museum in Tex Ritter Park. It was built in 1969 to honor the Dutch that settled here. The museum is two floors. On the first floor there are western artifacts, including a suit, had and boots worn by native son, Tex Ritter. The second floor has artifacts from Holland. It's free to go in.
Next to the Dutch Windmill Museum is the La Maison Acadienne, which is a replica of early Acadian homes from Southern Louisana. Working in conjunction with Loveless Theriot, who was from Louisiana and had lived in Nederland for 50 years, the museum was opened in 1974. It, too, is free to enter and explore.
Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter was born in Murvaul Texas, which is a very tiny town in Panola County Texas. His family moved here to Nederland when he was a teen and he went to a nearby High School that was in Beaumont. He graduated from University of Texas. Tex Ritter was a singing cowboy. He starred in movies like "Son of the Gringo" and is a member of the Grand Ole Opry. I know him as the dad of John Ritter, who starred in Three's Company back in the 70s.
When you pull into Nederland off the highway on to the main street, you see this welcome arch.
It's a pretty small town though 19K people live here. The biggest employers are the Nederland ISD and Sun Oil Company. That's the company that started after the Spindletop gusher came in back in 1901! This is the main street that has all the cool little shops in old buildings. We saw a lady riding her bike to the bank and other people driving around in golf carts.
You know how towns have their "thing"? Like Athens had the fiddle and the state of Texas and all the businesses would decorate one? Nederland has these Dutch Wooden Shoes. I love it!
For a small town, they have some stuff. They have an H-E-B to grocery shop. For fast food, we saw McDonald's, Subway, Whataburger, Chik-Fil-A and Chicken Express, among others. There was a Texas Roadhouse as well but I think it was technically in Port Arthur.
Nederland one had Interurban rail service between here, Beaumont and Port Arthur. Service was discontinued in 1933 and the rails were pulled up. I don't know reading that stuff makes me kind of sad.
We only stopped here for about thirty minutes to check things out but I'm glad that we did. It's a cool little town and worth a visit. So, if you're in the area, check it out!
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