Kountze ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hardin County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,981 at the 2020 census. The city is part of the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area.
Kountze was originally established as a railroad town in 1881. The city was named for Herman and Augustus Kountze, financial backers of the Sabine and East Texas Railroad. The seat of Hardin County, Kountze boasts an area of more than 89% forested lush green terrain. The local area produces over of lumber annually.
Kountze describes itself as "The Gateway to the Big Thicket". The thicket is a vast area of tangled, often impenetrable woods, streams, and marshes that occupies a circle of southeastern Texas, about north of Beaumont. The cradle of the United States' oil industry is found in the region. Portions of the thicket are nationally protected as the Big Thicket National Preserve.
In 1991, Kountze became the first American city with a Muslim mayor, an African American named Charles Bilal.
Sites of interest
The Kirby-Hill House was built in 1902 by James L. Kirby, brother of timber baron and philanthropist John Henry Kirby. James' daughter, Lucy Kirby Hill, purchased the house from her father in 1907. It is the first Hardin County home listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Big Thicket National Preserve was established by Congress in 1974. This combination of virgin pine and cypress forest, hardwood forest, meadow, and blackwater swamp is managed by the National Park Service. The preserve was established to protect the remnant of its complex biological diversity.<!-- What is so extraordinary is not the rarity or abundance of its life forms, but how many species coexist here. -->
Geography
Kountze is slightly northeast of the center of Hardin County, north of Cypress Creek, an east-flowing tributary of Village Creek and part of the Neches River watershed. U.S. Route 287 (Pine Street) is the main highway through the city, leading north to Woodville and south to Beaumont. Texas State Highway 326 (W. Monroe Street) leads southwest from Kountze to Sour Lake.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city of Kountze has a total area of , of which , or 0.20%, is water.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Kountze had a population of 1,981, 715 households, and 496 families residing in the city. The median age was 38.8 years. 23.6% of residents were under the age of 18 and 18.9% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 96.7 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 90.7 males age 18 and over.
There were 715 households in Kountze, of which 33.7% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 45.5% were married-couple households, 15.5% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 32.7% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 22.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
! Race !! Number !! Percent
|-
| White || 1,363 || 68.8%
|-
| Black or African American || 443 || 22.4%
|-
| American Indian and Alaska Native || 6 || 0.3%
|-
| Asian || 19 || 1.0%
|-
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 1 || 0.1%
|-
| Some other race || 56 || 2.8%
|-
| Two or more races || 93 || 4.7%
|-
| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 106 || 5.4%
|}
2010 census
As of the 2010 census, Kountze had a population of 2,123. The ethnic and racial makeup of the population was 70.1% non-Hispanic White, 23.1% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.3% Asian Indian, 0.4% Filipino, 0.1% other Asian, 1.3% some other race, and 2.2% reporting two or more races, including 5.0% Hispanic.
2000 census
As of the census