[citation needed] The city of Cabot sprang up as a small settlement around a refueling station on the Cairo & Fulton Railroad after it bypassed Austin.

The settlement first appeared in 1873 and is thought to have been named after railroad executive George Cabot Ward.

Cabot was often overshadowed in northern Lonoke County by what at the time was the much larger city of Austin (originally named Oakland).

However, Cabot experienced growth during the 1950s and 1960s, due to its proximity to the Little Rock Air Force Base in nearby Jacksonville which opened in 1955, as well as due to the "white flight" occurring in response to the racial discord in Little Rock, Arkansas caused by school desegregation and its following crisis.

[6] In 1972, the Little Rock School District, slow to comply with the 1954 US Supreme Court case Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, was forcibly ordered by federal courts to immediately desegregate the school district.

As a result, tensions rose and during the 1980s and 1990s Little Rock school district teachers repeatedly went on strike.

[citation needed] A "white exodus" occurred with many residents choosing to relocate to smaller communities around Little Rock, including Cabot, Benton, Bryant, Conway, and Maumelle instead of choosing to continue supporting full integration.

[citation needed] Over time, new arrivals to the state chose to live in these towns (now veritable suburbs) because, by some educational indicators, the school districts were more successful.

[7] This, coupled with the perceived higher quality of life and easily accessed work opportunity, has resulted in a "boomtown.

[9] A devastating tornado hit downtown Cabot during the afternoon of March 29, 1976, killing five people and destroying multiple buildings.

Historically, Cabot lay on the Memphis to Fort Smith spur of the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach Route.

[3] The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters.

The most recent United States Census Bureau estimates available (from July 2014) indicate the city's population at 25,627.

Cabot has a movie theater that was built in the late 1990s, plus a growing number of restaurants, amateur sporting venues and community organizations.

Both of the country clubs and the Veterans of Foreign Wars post are exceptions to Cabot's legal status as part of a dry county, which prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages elsewhere in the city.

[20] Adam Richman, the host of Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel, came to Cabot's Mean Pig BBQ during the Season 2 "Little Rock" episode which aired on November 25, 2009, to try the Shut-Up Juice Challenge, which involves a large smoked pulled pork sandwich topped with coleslaw and "Shut-Up Juice" - barbecue sauce mixed with a tablespoon of concentrated, undiluted habanero extract.