Texarkana

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. Now, some towns just kind of happen. They drift into existence slow and quiet, like fog off a river.

Texarkana was not that kind of town. Texarkana arrived on a specific day, at a specific hour, with a railroad and a gavel and a whole lot of people ready to spend money. December 8th, 1873.

That's when the Texas and Pacific Railroad platted the townsite and held the sale of lots, opening up a regional shipping point right there on the border country. Forty people showed up for that auction. Forty.

You could seat them all at a few long tables. But they were standin' on something bigger than they knew. The site had already earned a name before the railroad ever drove a spike.

Named for the Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana trade area it sat among, and the marker takes care to point out that several people can claim credit for that naming. Not one, not two, but several. A physician.

A priest. A surveyor. A medicine show barker.

A statesman. And others. That's quite a committee for a place that hadn't officially opened for business yet.

Then the business of incorporation began, and it happened twice, because this city straddles a state line and that means doing everything the hard way. Texas incorporated the city on June 12th, 1874. Arkansas got around to it on October 17th, 1880.

The city advanced rapidly, the marker says, in business and social facilities. And here's the line that earns its keep: from those forty people standing at a townsite auction, Texarkana grew to over fifty-two thousand by 1973. Forty to fifty-two thousand.

Same ground, same old Indian trail running through it, the one that once connected the Mississippi all the way to Mexico, famed enough that the marker calls it by that name outright. Some places are born at a crossroads. Texarkana was born at several of them at once, and it never really stopped growing from that December morning in 1873.

What the marker says

Founded when Texas & Pacific railroad platted townsite and held sale of lots on Dec. 8, 1873, to open regional shipping point. Strategically located on famed Indian trail from the Mississippi to Mexico, site had already been named (for its Texas-Arkansas-Louisiana trade area) by several persons-- a physician, a priest, a surveyor, a medicine show barker, a statesman, and others. City was incorporated in Texas on June 12, 1874; in Arkansas, Oct. 17, 1880. It advanced rapidly in business and social facilities. In a century, it has grown from 40 persons at townsite auction to over 52,000. (1973) Incise on back: Sponsored by Texarkana Chamber of Commerce Convention and Visitors Bureau, Bowie County Historical Survey Committee