The Hornbeck town site in Section 16, T 4N, 10W was purchased in 1897 from the Kansas City Southern railroad for $8.640 by F.A. Hornbeck, agent of the Arkansas Town Site Company. That same year the Hornbeck post office was established, with Walter Carey and D. B. Pate serving as the first two postmasters. Hornbeck was incorporated on October 21, 1902, and Gov. William Wright Heard appointed the first mayor, W.M. Conerly, town marshal, W. Johnson, and a board of aldermen whose first members were G.C. Leach, W. L. Maddox, and John Carter. Prospering from both the railroad and timber industry, Hornbeck by 1912 supported a bank, newspaper, five hotels, five saloons, ten mercantile establishments, and the town school, home of the "Hornets." However, in that same year the railroad roundhouse, critical to the town's prosperity, was moved to Leesville, severely affecting the area economy. Hornbeck's prosperity continued to ebb through the depression years of the 1930's, but it returned in 1941 with the arrival of the U.S. Army's "Louisiana Maneuvers" and the construction of Camp Polk. With the construction of the Toledo Bend Reservoir in the 1960's, Hornbeck became known as the "GATEWAY" to Toledo Bend.