Техас штатындағы Оранж округі

County in Texas, United States

Orange County is a county located in the very southeastern corner of the U. S. state of Texas, sharing a boundary with Louisiana, within the Golden Triangle of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 84,808. The county seat is the city of Orange, and it falls within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area.

Orange County was formed in 1852 from portions of Jefferson County. It was named after the orange fruit, the common citrus fruit grown by the early settlers of this county near the mouth of the Sabine River. Due to periodic spells of quite cold winter weather (frosts) in Orange County, it is no longer the home of orange trees and citrus orchards. The production of those fruits in Texas long ago was moved a long way southwest into the Rio Grande Valley, where the weather is almost always warm all winter long. Citrus trees produce their fruit in the wintertime, which makes them especially vulnerable to frost and icy weather. A similar thing has happened in Florida, where orchards of citrus trees no longer exist in either Citrus County or Orange County because of bad winter freezes in some years. In both Florida and Texas, the citrus agriculture has been moved farther south in search of milder winters, and away from the periodic frosts. During World War II, Orange County was the home of a large amount of shipbuilding for the navies the United States and allied countries. The major shipbuilder, Consolidated Steel Corporation, was located in the town of Orange, and among the warships that it built were the Aulick (1942), the first warship built there, the Pope (1943), and the Carpenter (1945–46), the last warship built there. During the war, the Consolidate Steel Corporation employed as many as 20,000 people at its shipyard in Orange.

According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 380 square miles (984 km2), of which 334 square miles (865 km2) are land and 46 square miles (119 km2) (12%) are covered by water. Orange County is bordered on its east by the Sabine River, on its southeast by Sabine Lake, and on the northwest by the Neches River. The geography of Orange County varies relatively little, with an elevation that reaches 33 feet (10 m) above sea level at very few points within the county. Orange County is very flat, and its soil is quite sandy, as could be expected in a county along the Gulf of Mexico. (Sandy soil is also common in southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and in western and southern Florida.) Saltwater marshes occur in much of the southeastern part of Orange County that borders the Sabine River. The Piney Woods are in the northern part of the county.

The Orange County Courthouse serves as the court for the region. Republican County Judge John Gothia presides over the five member Orange County Commissioners' Court. Orange County lies in Texas House District 21, represented beginning in 2015 by Republican Dade Phelan of Beaumont.

Senators Name Party First Elected Level  Senate Class 1 John Cornyn Republican 2002 Senior Senator  Senate Class 2 Ted Cruz Republican 2012 Junior Senator Representatives Name Party First Elected Area(s) of Orange County Represented  District 14 Randy Weber Republican New district created with 2020 census. First elected 2012 Entire county

Primary economic activities in Orange County are the petroleum refining industry, paper milling, rice farming, and shrimping. Orange County was formerly a center for the building of warships, and a large U. S. Navy ghost fleet (reserve fleet) still exists in Jefferson County from which currently, many old warships are being cleaned of water pollution sources and then scrapped for their metals, thus employment for residents of Orange County in shipbreaking. Newspapers published in the county include the twice weekly Orange Leader and weeklies including the Bridge City based Penny Record, County Record, and Vidor Vidorian.

Orange County Airport operates general aviation flights. Nearby Southeast Texas Regional Airport (Port Arthur) operates commercial flights.

The county is served by five school districts: Bridge City ISD, Little Cypress Mauriceville Consolidated ISD, Orangefield ISD, Vidor ISD, and West Orange Cove Consolidated ISD.