Tomato-- Located next to the Mississippi River between Blytheville and Luxora, Tomato received much mail because of the odd name. There are two versions as to how the community originally known as Canadian Reach acquired the name Tomato. According to one version, it came about in 1895 when a postal representative came to officially record the name of the post office. A Mr. Coleman was operating the general store. He had 10 children and each child was assigned daily chores. Lettie Coleman was putting together an order of groceries for a customer at the time and it was late in the day. Since her father and the government representative couldn't decide on a name, she picked up a can of tomatoes and said, "Oh! Why don't you just call it Tomato!" Which they did.
The other tale has it this way: as steamboats traveled up and down the river, mail and packages were delivered at the landing. A large tomato packing box was nailed to a large cottonwood tree and mail was placed in the box. Since the box had a tomato stamped on it, it was just natural to call the place Tomato.
Tomato was subject to flooding each spring as the river rose and travel by boat was the only way in or out during these floods. The once thriving community has all but disappeared as residents relocated to an area south of Blytheville which is protected from flood waters by the St Francis District levee system.