Wiergate is a small unincorporated town

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 Newton County

Newton County, Texas

Newton County is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of Texas. In of 2000, its population was 15,072. Its county seat is Newton. Newton county is named for John Newton, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War...

, 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...

, in the far eastern part of the state. It lies approximately 70 miles (112.7 km) northeast 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...

 near State Highways 63 and 87. Its population today hovers around 450 (recorded as 461 in the 1990 US Census).

Historical development

Along with Bon Wier

Bon Wier, Texas

Bon Wier is an unincorporated town in eastern Newton County, Texas, United States, and is located along U.S. Route 190.-Historical development:...

, it was founded as a company town

Company town

A company town is a town or city in which much or all real estate, buildings , utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company...

 to service the needs of Wier Longleaf Lumber Company

Wier Longleaf Lumber Company

The Wier Longleaf Lumber Company was a lumber and milling operation established by Robert W. Wier in East Texas that ran from 1917 until 1944. During that period, the company clearcut more than 86,000 acres of virgin pine forest in Newton, Jasper and Sabine counties...

, the last of the major lumber milling operations in East Texas which was founded by Robert W. Wier and family in 1917. At its height in the 1920s and 1930s, it had a population of over 2,500, but with the sale of the lumber mill in 1944, the population slowly declined to its current levels.

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