Map - Port Arthur, Texas (Port Arthur)

Port Arthur is a city in Jefferson County within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Texas. A small, uninhabited portion extends into Orange County; it is 90 mi east of Houston. The largest oil refinery in the United States, the Motiva Refinery, is located in Port Arthur.

The population of Port Arthur was 53,818 at the 2010 census, down from 57,755 at the 2000 census. By 2020, its population rebounded to 56,039. Early attempts at settlements in the area had all failed. However, in 1895, Arthur Stilwell founded Port Arthur, and the town quickly grew. Port Arthur was incorporated as a city in 1898 and soon developed into a seaport. It eventually became the center of a large oil refinery network. The Rainbow Bridge across the Neches River connects Port Arthur to Bridge City.

Port Arthur is vulnerable to hurricanes and extensive damage to the city has been caused several times.

Aurora was an early settlement attempt near the mouth of Taylor Bayou on Sabine Lake, about 14 mi long and 7 mi wide. It is a saltwater estuary formed by the confluence of the Neches and Sabine Rivers. Through its tidal outlet, 5 mi Sabine Pass, Sabine Lake drains some 50000 sqmi of Texas and Louisiana into the Gulf of Mexico.

The town was conceived in 1837, and in 1840 promoters led by Almanzon Huston were offering town lots for sale. Some were sold, but Huston's project failed to attract many settlers. The area next was known as "Sparks", after John Sparks, who moved his family to the shores of Sabine Lake near the site of Aurora. The Eastern Texas Railroad, completed between Sabine Pass and Beaumont, Texas, passed 4 mi west of Sparks. However, the American Civil War soon began, and rail lines were removed. In 1886, a destructive hurricane hit the coast, causing the remaining residents to dismantle their homes and move to Beaumont. By 1895, Aurora had become a ghost town.

Arthur Stilwell led the resettling of the area as part of his planned city as the southern terminus of his Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad, predecessor to the Kansas City Southern Railway. Stilwell named the city Port Arthur after himself, not the British Royal Navy Lieutenant who gave his name to Port Arthur, China.

Pleasure Island now separates the city from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The 18.5 mi man-made island was created between 1899 and 1908 by the Corps of Engineers to support development of the port.

Arthur Stilwell founded the Port Arthur Channel and Dock Company to manage the port facilities. The port officially opened with the arrival of the British steamer Saint Oswald in 1899.

When oil was discovered at Spindletop, the J.M. Guffey Petroleum Company, later Gulf Oil, had run pipelines to Port Arthur as a shipping point and a location for an oil refinery. In November 1901, the first tanker, the Cardium, departed with Spindletop oil. The refinery was enlarged in 1902, and a pipeline connected to the Glenn Pool Oil Reserve in Oklahoma. The Texas Company, later Texaco, also started building a refinery in 1902. By 1916, the Port Arthur refinery was one of the three largest in the United States.

In 2015, the city council proposed an ordinance to declare Port Arthur a "film friendly city."