Queen City

Queen City is an incorporated town at the junction of U.S. Highway 59 and Farm roads 74, 96, 251, 2327, and 2791, seven miles west of the Texas-Arkansas line in eastern Cass County. It was founded in 1877 as a stop on the Texas and Pacific Railway. That same year a post office opened, and by 1885 the community had 650 residents, two churches, a district school, four steam sawmills, a gristmill, and a number of general stores. Soon after Queen City was established, an iron foundry was built to take advantage of the sizeable deposits of iron ore in the area. The quality and amount of the ore proved inadequate, however, and the ironworks were eventually abandoned. Another important early industry was lumbering. The lumber boom reached its peak around 1890, when the town had a population of 400. Afterward Queen City gradually declined, and by 1940 its population had dwindled to 295. The opening of the Rodessa oilfield in 1935 and the expansion of nearby Atlanta helped to spur new growth. In the mid-1950s Queen City had twelve rated businesses and a population of 500. In 1991 the town reported 1,831 residents and twenty businesses. The population dropped to 1,613 in 2000. Principal industries at that time included farming, forestry, oil, and tourism.