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Louisiana returned to Napoleon in 1800, and he promptly resold it to the United States in 1803. Relations were generally peaceful, and France ceded the area to Spain in 1763 at the Treaty of Paris.
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By 1718 numerous French traders had crossed the Sabine and were freely operating. To address incursions the Spanish established a number of missions throughout the region. Denis founded the French colony, Natchitoches, in 1713. He named the Sabine River (San Francisco de Sabenas) after the cypress trees he found. Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, under the Spanish flag, came to the area in 1519 to map the coastline. The coastal area that includes Orange County was highly contested during the colonization period. Little beside the mounds remain, and by 1908 the population had dwindled to nine known Atakapans in the area. Much evidence has been gleaned from these sources indicating a hunting, gathering, and fishing culture. These early inhabitants left shell remains of houses and burial mounds. Native Americans in the area were Atakapan Indians (the "man eaters").
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Salt domes, sand, and gravel are other natural resources of economic importance to the region.įindings of Clovis points and spearheads provide evidence that the area was occupied 12,000–15,000 years ago. More recently, oil and gas production and refining have become the major source of economic growth and development. The area's plentiful supply of lumber encouraged the growth of early industries involved with ship building, paper manufacture, and wooden products. The growing season averages 240 days per year, with the last freeze in mid March and the first freeze in early November. The annual average temperature is 68° F, with average temperatures ranging in January from a low of 42° F to a high of 61° F and in July from 74° F to 91° F. The annual precipitation average is fifty-six inches, and the average humidity is 89 percent at 6:00 A.M. The climate in Orange County is subtropical humid with the highest annual rainfall in the state. The Gulf prairies and marshes have similar grassland and crop areas concentrations, but the forests of bald cypress and water tupelo swamplands contrast markedly. Grassland areas as well as crops are found in concentrations. The Piney Woods are characterized by pine and hardwood forests. Reptiles and amphibians include toads and frogs, American alligator, turtles, diamond-backed terrapin, black-striped snake, speckled racer, Texas cat-eyed snake, Louisiana Pine snake, and the smooth green snake. Larger game in the area include squirrel, opossum, muskrat, beaver, otter, mink, ring-tailed cat, badger, raccoon, skunk, civet cat, nutria, coyote, fox, deer, and bobcat. Inland a variety of birds include the pheasant, quail, turkey, sandhill crane, duck, geese, woodcock, and jacksnipe. Shorebirds include gulls and terns, upland plover, sandpiper, dowitcher, snipe, and woodcock. The coastal region has many fish eating and migratory birds, including the white pelican, the heron, the egret, the heron, the wood stork, the white ibis, and sandhill crane. There are seven additional streams in the county. Sabine Lake, the largest lake in the region, is thirty miles long and twenty miles wide. Both the Sabine and Neches rivers drain to Sabine Lake, which feeds into the Gulf of Mexico through the Sabine Pass. The terrain is generally level and low, with elevations ranging from sea level to thirty feet, and is surfaced by loam over clayey subsoils. Orange County comprises 362 square miles of two ecological zones the Gulf prairies and marshes in the southeastern half of the county and the Piney Woods in northwest half of county. The county seat, Orange, is at 30☀5' north latitude and 93☄4' west longitude, twenty-four miles east of Beaumont and 288 miles southeast of Dallas. The Sabine River on the east forms a natural border between it and the state of Louisiana, and the Neches River forms its south and west boundary. Orange County is in the Central Prairie region of southeastern Texas.