The coming of the railroad from Montgomery in 1845 began a new era and revived Loachapoka's name. It became the trade center for Waverly, Roxana, Rome, Camp Hill, Dudleyville, and Dadeville. Rousseau's Raiders struck Loachapoka at sundown on Sunday, July 17, 1864, and remained for one day. The census of 1870 recorded a population of 1,254, but Reconstruction, migration, the Panic of 1873, and the railroad extension from Opelika to Dadeville in the early 1870s destroyed the town's preeminence. Loachapoka was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 11, 1973.