Columbia was a town on the Mississippi River about two miles east of this point. In 1833, the Chicot County seat was moved there from Villemont because of river bank erosion. Columbia became a thriving port and the site of a branch of The Real Estate Bank of Arkansas. It was the southern terminus of the Military Road from Little Rock and of The Little Rock, Pine Bluff and New Orleans Railroad, the first rail line in southeast Arkansas. In 1855, the county seat was moved to Masona and then to Lake Village in 1857. Columbia was eventually destroyed by the river.