The town that became Burbank began in Union County as Liberty. In 1873, it was moved to a new plat at its present location and renamed for territorial governor John A. Burbank. Non-Indians had lived in the area since the 1830s because of the nearby trading post Fort Vermillion, and a group of Mormons paused there on their way to Utah from 1845 to 1846. Burbank became a booming community in the early twentieth century, with a bank, two lumberyards, two general stores, three grain elevators, three pool halls, two restaurants, a meat market, and a blacksmith shop, and its growth peaked by the early 1920s. It first staked its future on trade and lumber carried by the Missouri River, but after the flood of 1881 altered the river's course, the town shifted to the railroad and became a grain- and cattle-shipping center. Its economy later declined as good automobile roads reduced the railroads' role. After fire destroyed the stockyards in 1919, they were not rebuilt, and the original school was converted to Whimp's Place, a restaurant and lounge popular with locals and USD students.