In 1882 an entrepreneur named Ruben Branson opened the first general store and post office as settlers began to come to the area seeking and finding plentiful game and fertile land. The area began to thrive because of the great fishing in the White River. 1895 saw the beginning of a new agricultural crop - tomatoes thrived here and soon a cannery was built in nearby Stone County. The many cans of tomatoes were loaded on to Paddle Wheel boats on the White River, the start of an industry that would last for over 75 years.

In the early 1900s, there were many farms near the Branson Post Office, as well as a handle factory, a tobacco barn, cotton gin, and a steamboat landing at the waterfront. The tobacco industry was the largest agricultural crop of the area and would continue to be so until 1959 when the tobacco farms became the bottom of the newly formed Table Rock Lake. The first school sat high upon the hill overlooking what is now downtown Branson. The settlement took the name of its first postmaster until 1901, when the second postmaster, named William Hawking, changed the name of the post office to Lucia.

In 1903 the completion of the Iron Mountain and Southern railroad that would soon allow visitors from all over to come and explore the untouched and unspoiled beauty of the Branson area. The Railroad Company began working below the Lucia Post Office on right of ways and other land acquired by the railroad. A portion of the property was soon designated for a town and placed under the direction of Charles Fulbright, the president of the Branson Town Company.  Fulbright laid out and filed the town plot of Branson on October 26, 1903. Unfortunately, another town plot for Lucia had been filed by a man named B. B. Price on October 2, 1903. By the end of November, Mr. Fulbright owned both town sites, and the name of Branson eventually prevailed.

In 1904, Branson boasted a General Store, two saloons, a rooming house, two doctors and a couple of other businesses. The same year would also see the arrival of Branson's first telephone line to town.

In late 1905 gained its first newspaper - The Branson Echo. The following year, the first regular passenger train arrived in Branson carrying business men, speculators and tourists. With the opening of the "Maine Fishing and Hunting Lodge", the Lynch sisters giving tours of Marvel Cave, and float and fishing trips becoming common, Branson soon became a tourist town.

Harold Bell Wright, a Kansas minister, was drawn to Branson because of his health. Afflicted with tuberculosis he had begun to visit every summer, stopping among the hill folks, exploring Marvel Cave, and enjoying the untouched setting of the area.