Bloomburg

Bloomburg is on the Kansas City Southern Railway six miles east of Atlanta and less than a half mile from the Arkansas state line in northeastern Cass County. Settlement in this area began before the Civil War, but Bloomburg did not begin to develop as a community until the Texarkana and Fort Smith Railway was built through the area in 1895. When the post office was opened in 1896 it was named for an official of the railroad company. Since the town was the last station on the railroad line before it left the state, it soon became a shipping point for area farmers. In 1898 the Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana Railway was constructed between Atlanta and Bloomburg; until it was abandoned in 1920 it gave residents of Bloomburg access to the Texas and Pacific Railway. By 1900 the town had a population of 198. It was incorporated in 1911 and by 1914 had a small bank, a hotel, a restaurant, several stores, and a population estimated at 600. Between 1914 and the 1960s the population fluctuated between a high of 600 and a low of 433; in the 1960s it fell from 500 to 231. In 1980 the population was 419, and in 1986 the town had three rated businesses. In 1990 the population was 376 and in 2000 it was 375.