City of Nederland

George (Gatze) Rienstra, the first settler, arrived in late May or June 1897, and signed a deed for 80 acres at $800 cash on July 17. That late summer the Port Arthur Land Company began building the Orange Hotel to house incoming immigrants. Arthur Stilwell's Port Arthur Townsite Company gave the colony its name, and he hoped it would become a transplanted Dutch settlement in Texas. Robert Gilham filed the survey certificate on December 24, 1897. Many settlers farmed rice, vegetables and dairy herds.

What the plaque says

City of Nederland Settled by Dutch immigrants in 1897; named for their native Netherlands, which in the 1890s suffered overcrowding, wornout soil, and scant hope for prosperity. Thus when the Port Arthur Land Company (joined by Dutch businessmen) advertised the abundance of America, many families eagerly moved to this region. The new colony thrived, although torrid summers, frigid winters, and swamps prompted a few to return to Holland. Those who remained built a sound economy of farming and ranching, now largely replaced by rice-growing and industries. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 6.6 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 7.8 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• McFaddin-Ward House — 11 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 17 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.

More markers nearby

• Site of First Mercantile Building — 0.2 mi
• First Baptist Church of Port Neches — 1.6 mi
• Southeast Texas Regional Airport — 2.0 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Port Neches — 2.2 mi