Vidor is located in Southeast
Texas at the intersection of Interstate Highway 10 and State
Highway 105, six miles east of Beaumont
in western OrangeCounty.
The site had heavy lumbering activities with the construction of the Texarkana
and Fort Smith Railroad in 1898. Vidor was named after lumberman Charles
Shelton Vidor, who acquired the Beaumont Sawmill Company and later established
the Miller-Vidor Lumber Company. By 1909 the Vidor community had a post office.
Four years later a company tram road was built. It was known locally as the
Peach Line, and it opened thousands of acres of virgin timber to loggers.
Almost all Vidor residents worked for the company. In 1924 the Miller-Vidor
Lumber Company moved to Lakeview because local timber stands were depleted, but
a small settlement remained, and the Miller-Vidor subdivision was laid out in
1929. Rice, cotton, and cattle were developed into important local industries.
Georgetown Texas Steel announced its plans to build a new $50 million plant at
Vidor in 1974, thus encouraging further growth.
With the steady growth of the Vidor community, the need arose for a plan to
organize the present business layout and to continue the growth of the
community by making Vidor a desirable place for new businesses to call home.
The establishment of the Vidor Chamber of Commerce took place in 1955 with the
goal of accepting the challenge to make Vidor a better place to do business
thereby improving the community as well.