Saratoga is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in Hardin County, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is located thirty-eight miles northwest of Beaumont

Beaumont, Texas

Beaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 118,296 at the 2010 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the...

. The zip code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

 is 77585.

Saratoga is part of the Beaumont–Port Arthur

Port Arthur, Texas

-Demographics:As of the 2000 census, there were 57,755 people, 21,839 households, and 14,675 families residing in the city. The population density was 696.5 people per square mile . There were 24,713 housing units at an average density of 298.0 per square mile...

 Metropolitan Statistical Area

Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area

The Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Area is defined by the United States Census Bureau as a three-county region in Southeast Texas, east of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. The area is also known as the Golden Triangle...

.

Historical development

The original name for this community was New Sour Lake. The first significant landmark discovery of this area was the sulfur

Sulfur

Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...

-smelling spring by J. F. Cotton in the 1850s. As late as 1865 he tried to establish an oil well

Oil well

An oil well is a general term for any boring through the earth's surface that is designed to find and acquire petroleum oil hydrocarbons. Usually some natural gas is produced along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce mainly or only gas may be termed a gas well.-History:The earliest...

 on the site, but failed due to inadequate machinery.
In the 1880’s a man named P. S. Watts wanted to profit from the spring using the unique “medicinal” properties of the water (a popular trend at the time). To draw would-be visitors to the site, Watts changed the name of the site to Saratoga to replicate the famous resort at Saratoga Springs, New York

Saratoga Springs, New York

Saratoga Springs, also known as simply Saratoga, is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 26,586 at the 2010 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area. While the word "Saratoga" is known to be a corruption of a Native American name, ...

.
He built a hotel and rental cottages for potential customers, but only a few came.
Years later, with the success of the Lucas Gusher within Spindletop

Spindletop

Spindletop is a salt dome oil field located in the southern portion of Beaumont, Texas in the United States. The Spindletop dome was derived from the Louann Salt evaporite layer of the Jurassic geologic period. On January 10, 1901, a well at Spindletop struck oil . The new oil field soon produced...

 at Beaumont, the first profitable wells would be drilled at Saratoga. In 1904 an extension of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway

Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway

The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in eastern Texas and to Purcell, Oklahoma.- Nineteenth Century :...

 would be built from Saratoga to Bragg Station

Bragg, Texas

Bragg is a ghost town in Hardin County, Texas, United States, in the Big Thicket forest area of the southeastern part of the state. Sometimes referred to as "Bragg Station", this small community that flourished in the early 1900s lies ten miles west of Kountze....

.
The railroad also created the business opportunity to profit from the lumber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

 industry. The town’s population would fluctuate from 1000 in 1925 down to 350 in the early 1950’s and back to over 1000 in recent years. Although the Saratoga trunk line running north from the town was dismantled in 1934, new oil wells have been drilled as recently as the early 1980’s.

There were oil wells drilled in Saratoga into the early 1990s also.

Education

Saratoga is served by the West Hardin County Consolidated Independent School District

West Hardin County Consolidated Independent School District

West Hardin County Consolidated Independent School District is a public school district based in the community of Saratoga, Texas, USA.Other communities served by the district include Batson, Thicket, and Votaw....

.

Other information

• Saratoga is the birth place of country music icon George Jones
  George Jones
  George Glenn Jones is an American country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette....
  
  .
• Just north of town is a ghost light
  Light of Saratoga
  The "Light of Saratoga" is a legend located in the Big Thicket of Southeast Texas. This legend of a mysterious light is also known as the "Ghost Road" of Saratoga, the "Saratoga Light", and "Bragg Road Ghost Light" by local residents...
  
  of an undetermined nature.
• Saratoga also serves as the Big Thicket Association headquarters.

External links