Grand Bluff

Grand Bluff, on Farm Road 2792 eight miles north of Carthage in north central Panola County, grew up around a ferry crossing on the Sabine River established in the 1840s. Because it was located on one of the principal routes from Shreveport, the town grew rapidly during the 1850s. A post office opened in 1847, and by the early 1860s the town had one or two stores, a blacksmith shop, a school, and a gristmill. After the Civil War the community continued to prosper, and in the mid-1880s it had a church, a school, a general store, a steam sawmill-gristmill, three steam cotton gins, and an estimated population of 200. Daily stages ran to Carthage and Marshall. After the construction of the railroads in the 1880s the town began to decline. The post office closed in 1887, and by 1900 many of the businesses had closed. In the mid-1930s Grand Bluff had several stores, a sawmill, and a number of houses. In the early 1970s several stores and a factory still remained in the area. In the early 1990s Grand Bluff was a dispersed community; the population in 1990 was ninety-seven. The population remained the same in 2000.