 A local post office was established in 1867 and by the early 1880s the town possessed a dry good store, a district school, a church, a gristmill, a blacksmith, and several general stores.The settlement began to decline by the mid-1880s after the Kansas and Gulf Short Line Railroad bypassed Etna.Most of the residents and businesses move to Bullard and the post office closed in 1883, by 1900 Etna was a ghost town.