Buffalo Springs

Buffalo Springs is on Farm Road 3077 fifteen miles south of Henrietta in south central Clay County. Settlement of the area began in 1864, when twenty-five families constructed an outpost and attempted to establish a farming community. The settlers, under persistent Indian attacks and unable to survive a lengthy drought, abandoned the site, which remained uninhabited until 1878, when brothers C. O. and J. Q. Burnett settled about three-quarters of a mile from the ruins of the outpost. The community that developed, named for nearby Buffalo Creek, received postal service that year. By the mid-1890s Buffalo Springs had 200 residents, several stores, and two cotton gins; farming and stockraising were its residents' principal occupations. The reported population fell to 125 in 1914 and 115 by the mid-1920s. In the 1930s Buffalo Springs had a school, two churches, and a variety of small businesses. Its post office was discontinued in 1954, and its population fell from 100 in the 1950s to 60 by the mid-1960s and 51 in 2000.