Texarkana was founded when the Texas & Pacific railroad platted the townsite and held a sale of lots on Dec. 8, 1873, to open a regional shipping point. Strategically located on the famed Indian trail from the Mississippi to Mexico, the site had already been named for its Texas-Arkansas-Louisiana trade area by several persons, including a physician, a priest, a surveyor, a medicine show barker, a statesman, and others. The city was incorporated in Texas on June 12, 1874, and in Arkansas on Oct. 17, 1880. It advanced rapidly in business and social facilities, and in a century grew from 40 persons at the townsite auction to over 52,000.