Deer Park, Texas

Deer Park is near the site of the Battle of San Jacinto, where, on April 21, 1836, Texas won its independence from Mexico.

== History == Deer Park was founded in 1892 by Simeon H.

A railroad station opened later that year and a post office followed in 1893.

In 1896, the community, with a population of forty, had a hotel, a general store, and three resident carpenters.

By 1922, Deer Park had dwindled down to almost nothing with four houses, one little schoolhouse, and an old hotel with a few scattered shacks along the railroad right-of-way.

In 1928, Shell Oil Company broke ground on a new refinery.

Shell-Pemex: Shell Oil began operations at the Shell Oil Refinery in Deer Park on August 13, 1929.

A new post office was established in 1930.

By 1940, the population had grown to 100.

The Shell Chemicals plant opened in 1941.

By 1946, however, the area began to flourish as Deer Park became the site of refineries and toluene plants for the production of TNT.

The citizens of Deer Park voted to incorporate on December 12, 1948, and a few weeks later Earl E.

The first city council meeting was held on February 7, 1949.

The first Deer Park Public Library was opened on September 20, 1961, in what had previously been a fire station.

A public library was begun in 1962 on Center Street.

In 1965, the library became an official city department.

The current library opened its doors in a newly constructed building on February 25, 1969.

Population was 12,773 in 1970, and 28,520 in 2000.

The library underwent two expansions — in 1993 and 2013.

=== Shell Chemical plant explosion === On June 22, 1997, an ethylene explosion occurred at the nearby Shell Chemical Company plant that was heard and felt as far as 25 miles (40...

=== 2000 census === In 2000, the racial makeup of the city was 90.01% White, 1.31% African American, 0.41% Native American, 1.13% Asian, 0.13% Pacific Islander, 5.25% from other...

Twice has the Deer Park region seen incredible rainfall events from a Tropical Cyclone between 2001 and 2017.

The Shell plant had a long history of chemical incidents between 2016 and 2022, including 68 emissions events that released 974,847 pounds of toxic emissions into the air.

=== Intercontinental Terminals Company's chemical fire === On March 17, 2019, a chemical fire broke out at Intercontinental Terminals Company.

== Demographics == As of the 2020 census, there were 34,495 people residing in the city.

In January 2022, Shell sold its Deer Park refinery to Pemex, the state oil company of Mexico.

=== 2023 tornado === Deer Park has been known for several smaller and less destructive tornadoes in its past, but on January 24, 2023, a large EF3 tornado hit downtown Deer Park.

In April 2024, the state of Texas and the U.S.