Texas' first rice mill

Photos by Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise

Rice is stored at Beaumont Rice Mills Inc. in Beaumont on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2006. Texas rice fields produced above-normal yields this year. However, rice remains in dryers until a dispute over genetically modified rice elsewhere in America is resolved.


A Official Historical Medallion commemorates Beaumont Rice Mills Inc. in Beaumont as Texas' first rice mill.


Betty Stoy mills a rice sample at Beaumont Rice Mills Inc. in Beaumont. The machine she uses separates the rice from the chaff. It was Stoy's last day before retiring after 23 years.


Betty Stoy separates broken rice from long-grain rice in a test sample at Beaumont Rice Mills Inc. The test sample is weighed throughout the process to estimate the results from an entire bag of rice in the larger mill.


Betty Stoy grades a test sample of rice at Beaumont Rice Mills Inc. Any remaining pieces of rice are removed from the long grain rice to keep an accurate sample weight.


Bags of chaff rest on a dock at Beaumont Rice Mills Inc.