History of Bogata
What’s in a Name?
William and Mary McGill Humphries settled near springs on Little Mustang Creek in 1836 and called the settlement that grew up around them Maple Springs. In 1844, the Maple Springs community comprised enough families to support a school and in 1851 along came a post office.
In 1880 the settlement divided. The old Maple Springs post office adopted the name of Rosalie and in 1881 a second post office opened a few miles to the west, slightly north of the site of present Bogata. When the United States government refused to accept Maple Springs as the new post office’s name, postmaster James E. Horner submitted an alternative.
Horner, who had a romantic enthusiasm for Latin-American republican revolution against Spanish rule, suggested the name Bogata’, after the Colombian capital, which was the scene of his hero Simon Bolivar’s victory in 1814. The suggestion was accepted, but perhaps owing to Horner’s penmanship, the name was misspelled B-o-g-a-t-a. The town inhabitants accepted the official spelling but pronounce the name “Buh-goh-ta”.
During the 1885 Bogata had two churches, four cotton gins, six gristmills, and a population of 400. The Paris and Mount Pleasant Railway arrived in 1910, causing the town to move its commercial establishments to a new main street nearer the railroad tracks. Train service was discontinued in 1956.
The town’s population, which grew slowly through the decades when most of the area was losing ground, reached 1,508 in 1980, when Bogata had a 154-bed nursing home, medical and dental clinics, a locally owned bank, and thirty business establishments. In 1990 the population was 1,421 and in 2000 it was 1,396.
Welcome to Bogata
Bogata, Texas is at the junction of U.S. Highway 271, State Highway 37, and Farm Road 909 in southwestern Red River County, just 20 miles north of Interstate 30 in Mount Vernon. We are a small-town farming and ranching community with an excellent Public-School system and opportunity for business growth and development.
Mission Statement:
- The City of Bogata is a family-oriented community in southwest Red River County. Our mission is to preserve and enhance the quality of life of citizens with a commitment to a high standard in public and private services. An agriculturally based community with a vision for future development and growth.
Vision Statement:
- Continue Managed Growth, Natural Resource Protection, Agricultural Identity, Sense of Community, Fiscal Responsibility, City/County Coordination, Public Service & Utility Coordination, with Public Input.