 Burdette has its origins as a company town established by the Three States Lumber Company in the early 1900s.Incorporated in 1905, the town was named for Alfred Burdette Wolverton, an early logger in the area.Three States completed a large sawmill in Burdette in 1906, and the Blytheville, Burdette, and Mississippi River Railroad connected the mill via rail to Wolverton Landing along the Mississippi River that same year.