Hardin County is the home and center of the Big Thicket of Southeast Texas, a unique biological area, like none other in the world. It has been called the "biological crossroads" of America. The Big Thicket contains the greatest variety of plants of any comparable area in the United States. There is still debate over where the "real Big Thicket" actually was located. The "tight eye" thicket or the "bear hunters" thicket is different from the Big Thicket of the biologists.

It is estimated that the original Big Thicket included at least 3.5 million acres stretching from the Neches River on the east to the Trinity River on the west form Pine Island Bayou on the south to Village Creek or Alabama Creek on the north.

At least two Indian tribes who played an important part in the settlement of the Big Thicket area, where the Alabama and the Coushatta Tribes, who had migrated into the area from the state of Alabama. Texas eventually gave these two tribes land on which to settle in Polk County, where they remain today.

Hardin County was established by the state legislature in 1858, out of parts of 3 adjoining counties: Jefferson, Liberty and Tyler and it was named Hardin after the Hardin family of Liberty County. Some have the mistaken idea that the new county was named after the famous gunman and son of J. G. Hardin, but John Wesley Hardin was not born until 1853 in Polk County and did not become famous until about 1871.

The county seat, named Hardin, was established in 1859 and was located about 3 miles west of the present city of Kountze. The town was also named after the Hardin family of Liberty County. The first courthouse was built at Hardin in 1859 and is said to have been a 2-story log building. The community is now called "Old Hardin" to separate it from the town of Hardin in Liberty County. The site of the first court house in "Old Hardin" is marked by a State Historical Marker.

The first elected officers for Hardin County included Chief Justice Hampton Jackson Herrington, County Treasurer William Henry Hart, Sheriff Hillary Moore and Tax Assessor/Collector Ebenezer Holland.

Many of the early settlers came into Southeast Texas by steamboat from New Orleans through Lake Charles and Sabine Pass and up the Neches River and Village Creek to the Hardin County area. Some of them crossed Village Creek about 8 miles north of Kountze and settled in the Providence Community about 1830. This was probably the first white settlement in what was to become Hardin County. Some of these people were: James McKinney, Hugh McNeely, The Hollands, Jordans, and others. James McKinney operated a ferry on Village Creek at Providence before the famous McNeely Bridge was built. The McKinney Cemetery was named for the McKinney Family.

Old Concord was located on the north side of Pine Island Bayou near where it runs into the Neches River. Concord was settled in 1856 and it is said to be the first white settlement on the southern edge of the Big Thicket. It became the southern terminal for steamboat traffic on the Neches River. Steamboats, flatboats and keelboats were used on the Neches River from 1830 up until about 1880, when the first railroad was built into Hardin County from Beaumont. Steamboat owners had a monopoly on the freight and passenger travel until the coming of the railroads. There is a State Historical Marker at the site where the Old Concord Road crossed US Highway 69 at Lumberton.

Completion of the railroad from Beaumont to Rockland sealed the doom for Hardin as the County Seat. When the Kountze Brothers, Herman and Augustus, bankers from New York and Omaha, built the first railroad from Beaumont to Rockland and Lufkin, they decided to by-pass the town of Hardin and built it straight to Woodville. In the meantime, the courthouse in Hardin burned and the citizens of the county decided to move the county seat to Kountze.

Texas had won her Independence from Mexico in 1836 and had existed as the Republic of Texas until 1845 when she joined the United States.

Hardin County was not really interested in the issued that caused the Civil War. A few people in the county had slaves, but it was not a major issued in the social lives of the county. The issue of States Rights vs. Federal Rights had little impact on a wilderness frontier such as existed in Hardin County. However, when the election was held in February 1861, Hardin County voted with the rest of the state to succeed from the Union.

There were some very interesting tales to come out of the Civil War period, including the "Legend of Honey Island", and the "Legend of the Kaiser Burnout". Many men from our county served in the Civil War and some of them paid the supreme sacrifice. Our area produced several competent officers, including Lt. Dick Dowling, Col. Philip A. Work and Capt. W. C. Gibbs.

After the Civil War, great changes began to take place in the county. The wholesale harvesting of timber, and later, the drilling for oil took its tool on the economy of the area. The railroads took the place of the steamboat, and non-residents began to flock to Hardin County to profit from its resources. The early railroad, built by the Kountze Brothers, was sold to the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. The Santa Fe Railroad had crossed the Trinity River into Hardin County and was soon linked up with the Beaumont and Kansas City Line at Silsbee. The coming of the railroad made the steamboats on southeast Texas streams obsolete and the era of the steamboat passed into history. With the completion of the railroad in 1882, Hardin County was changed forever. Silsbee became the largest town almost over-night. Communities such as Fletcher, Chance-Loeb, Village Mills, Honey Island, olive, Long Station, Nona, Grayburg, Hester, Bragg, Votaw, Thicket, Dies, Fressenius, Hooks Switch, and many other sawmill towns were built up and down the railroads. John Henry Kirby established an oil, railroad and lumber empire that dominated the economy of Southeast Texas for nearly a hundred years.

The Big Thicket had its share of the black bears and bear hunting became a great pastime. Some of the early bear hunters of the thicket were Bud and Ben Hooks, Carter Hart, Bud Brackin, Ed Chance, Jim Allums, Judge Hightower, John Salter and Bill McConnico, among others. One of the most colorful bear hunters of the time was Ben Lily, probably the most famous hunter in the U.S. He came into the Big Thicket in 1906 in search of a black bear specimen for the National Museum in Washington, D. C. He was employed by the U. S. Government Biological Survey Agency to collect specimens of wild life for the museum. He hunted with Ben and Bud Hooks and others during his stay in Hardin County.

Shallow well drilling for oil in Hardin County began as early as 1860, but the decade beginning with 1900 can be called the "Oil Age" in Hardin County. At the time, prospectors were drilling in the Sour Lake, Saratoga and Batson areas. The crews at Spindletop won the race to drill the first Southeast Texas gusher, which changed the world. The honor could have easily gone to Sour Lake. Shortly after the 1901 Discovery Well at Spindletop, successful wells were drilled at Sour Lake, followed by gushers at Saratoga and Batson. Thus, Hardin County came to be ranked as one of the prime oil fields in the world.

Even before the discovery of oil at Sour Lake and Saratoga, both of these communities had become famous for the mineral springs in this area. People flocked to the springs from far and near to drink the water and bathe in the mineral laden pools. Health spas were built and many famous people, including Sam Houston, who came to bathe his wounds from the Battle of San Jacinto, came to bathe in the pools. Oil discoveries at both places ended the health resort business that had existed for several years. Several of the larger oil companies, including Texaco at Sour Lake, Paraffin Oil Company at Saratoga and the J. M. Guffey Petroleum Company, had their beginnings in Hardin County.

All the virgin timber is gone, the black bear in the Big Thicket are gone and the oil boom of the early 1900's has ended. Hardin County has begun to settle down. Plans are being made to build a visitor's center for the newly created Big Thicket National Preserve and new industry seems to be moving into our area almost daily and efforts are being made to preserve what we have left for future generations to see where we came from. There is still a great future for Hardin County.