–Not graded

History · Garland

Garland’s post office opened in 1883, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Most of Garland was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1977. Its Register listing is the Wynn-Price House. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1952 on, and the census since 1910.

1883first post office

1on the National Register

3%homes built before 1940

1old photo or paper

Add an old photo Share a memory

From Garland’s archive · credits on each photo

Quick answers

How Garland began

When was Garland founded?

1883

The Garland post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Lost Prairie (1915), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 277 in 19102020 census: 195143 years

Founding year: the first Garland post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Garland’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 660 in 1980; 195 people lived here in 2020.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Garland’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Garland’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2 Retake an old viewRed River Bridge, Spanning Red River at…: stand where they stood+15 Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

People over time

Garland, census by census

Peaked at 660 in 1980; 195 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Garland’s Wikipedia page.

The story so far

Garland, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Garland yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Garland, also known as Garland City, is a town in Miller County, Arkansas, United States. It is part of the Texarkana, Texas - Texarkana, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 195 at the 2020 census, down from 242 in 2010.

Its first post office opened in 1883. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 242 to 195 (-19%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Garland in 1889

Passages that mention Garland, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Garland County was created by an act of the general assembly of the State of Arkansas, approved April 5, 1873. The first section of the act provided that all that portion of the counties of Saline, Hot Spring, and Montgomery included in the following boundaries should be organized into a separate a… — Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the state... biographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.]1889 · page 526Read the page →
Read the text
Garland County was created by an act of the general assembly of the State of Arkansas, approved April 5, 1873. The first section of the act provided that all that portion of the counties of Saline, Hot Spring, and Montgomery included in the following boundaries should be organized into a separate and distinct county, to be known as the county of Garland, viz. :
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

The act creating Garland County placed it in the Seventh judicial district, which is now composed of the counties of Perry, Saline, Garland, Hot Spring and Grant. The circuit court of Garland County convenes in regular session on the fourth Mondays of March and September; the county court on the fi… — Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the state... biographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.]1889 · page 528Read the page →
Read the text
The act creating Garland County placed it in the Seventh judicial district, which is now composed of the counties of Perry, Saline, Garland, Hot Spring and Grant. The circuit court of Garland County convenes in regular session on the fourth Mondays of March and September; the county court on the first Mondays of January, April, June and October; the probate court on the second Mon-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Garland, 1883 to 1983

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

19th century
1883Post officeThe Garland post office opens
20th century
1915Post officeThe Lost Prairie post office opens
1918Post officeThe Lost Prairie post office closes
1952On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
1980CensusPopulation peaks at 660
1983Post officeThe Garland post office closes
1983Post officeThe Garland City post office opens

By decade

Garland, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date

Red River Bridge, Spanning Red River at U.S. Highway 82

Date?Red River Bridge, Spanning Red River at U.S. Highway …

Today1 recent

2018Hot Springs National Park

On the map

Garland on the map, 1952 to 1975

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Garland. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

1952Garland sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Garland.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Retake this viewRed River Bridge, Spanning Red River at U.S. Highway 82

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Garland’s page.

Retake this view · +15

On the National Register

1 historic place in Garland

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

each building in a district counts

first listed

1992

Wynn-Price House

Buildings

Wynn-Price HouseBuilding

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Garland had its own post office from 1883 to 1983. Another post office, Lost Prairie, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Garland

1883–1983

Lost Prairie

1915–1918

Garland City

1983–today

18801950today

Gone or out of use

Bill Rogers Airportairport

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Garland’s history

What year was Garland founded?

The Garland post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Garland?

One place: the Wynn-Price House (listed 1992).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

Start a conversation

Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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