In 1835, Irish settlers founded what is now known as Beeville in Bee County. Located in the heart of the Coastal Bend, Beeville is the gateway to the SouthTexas Brasada, Spanish for Brush County. Bee County appeals to a variety of visitors with cultural, natural, historical and recreational attractions.

Tops for Art

Culturally speaking, Texas Monthly, in its September 2004 issue, named Beeville one of the four best small towns in Texas for art. The Beeville Art Museum is one of the reasons. The museum, housed in the historic Ester Barnhart House and funded by the Joe Barnhart Foundation, has exhibited some of Texas’ finest contemporary artists as well as collections housed at Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the San Antonio Museum of Art. Coastal Bend College’s Simon Michael Art Gallery hosts rotating exhibits on a regular basis, including the work of many local artists. Coastal Bend College also houses one of the only two public, fully functioning glass-blowing facilities in Texas.Tours are welcome and classes are offered weekly in the early summer months.

Other cultural attractions include the state-of-theart Joe Barnhart Bee County Library, technologically, one of the first of its kind in the United States. The Beeville Concert association’s annual concert season is full of visiting performers like The Gateway (US Air Force Band of the West) to the San Antonio Symphony.

Buzzing with Blooms


Springtime brings colorful displays of wildflowers to rural Bee County. In 1999 Southern Living magazine said
“Bee County was buzzin’ last year when, thanks to generous winter rains, wildflowers were at their absolute best. It was a time of incredible bounty and unending beauty. The variety and depth of the colors is remarkable.”

Wildlife is plentiful in the area, making Bee County a hunter’s, birder’s, or photographer’s paradise. With
an abundance of deer, dove, quail, and wild hogs, every sportsman will find his or her proper challenge.
The area is colorfully alive with many species of birds such as native Texans Green Jays or Painted Buntings.
Many of the local ranches offer photographers the opportunity to “Catch their prey” in natural habitat.

 

History

For the history buff, Bee County offers plenty of historic sites to see and study. The Berclair Mansion
and the McClanahan House are two examples, along with the Calaboose Museum in Skidmore and the
Mercantile Store in Mineral.

In 2006, Beeville was honored to be named a Texas Main Street City and the community has begun the
process of revitalizing the historic downtown district of the city. In that process, an abundance of shopping opportunities are being developed. Come stroll down the wide,quiet avenue into quaint gift shops and tea rooms.

For the more athletic visitor, the Beeville Country Club’s golf course was named by the Dallas Morning
News as one of the best 9-hole golf courses in Texas. The newly built livestock arena at the Bee County Exposition Center is one of the few covered outdoor facilities of its kind in South Texas.

Bee County has a tradition of celebrations. The Junior Livestock show and Sale takes place every January. Each September the community commemorates its rich Hispanic heritage with the Diez Y Seiz Festival in downtown Beeville and October brings the Western Week Celebration, a long time community tradition, with the annual Bee County Chamber of commerce Parade that dates from the 1940’s.

Call the Bee County Chamber of Commerce at
361-358-3267 or visit us at www.beecountychamber.org.

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Bee County Chamber of Commerce
Convention & Visitors Bureau
1705 N. St. Mary s • Beeville, TX 78102
361 358 3267 • Fax: 361 358 3966
www.beecountychamber.org
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