A new townsite was laid out in 1901 on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and promoted by brothers Lee D. and William T. Guinn. It was first named Hubb for county surveyor Hubbard S. Guinn, then renamed Ponta when the post office was established in 1903, adapting the Latin Ponte, meaning bridge. Ponta became a shipping center for local products including lumber, cotton, tomatoes, and peaches, and over time it developed general stores, restaurants, banks, blacksmiths, cotton gins, sawmills, a hotel, a Masonic lodge, churches, and schools. Large-scale greenhouse cultivation began in the area in the 1950s. After World War Two the railroad ceased operation, the post office closed in 1972, and Ponta Plant Nurseries remained a major factor in the Cherokee County economy.