Alma was incorporated in 1874 and the economy was largely agricultural until the introduction of the canning industry. Today, the city claims the title of “Spinach Capital of the World”.

In his book Washington Goes to War, David Brinkley described Alma’s participation in the World War II effort:

In the town of Alma, Arkansas (population 776), one-fourth of the girls in the 1944 high school graduating class signed up to leave for Washington, and several of their teachers cast aside their low-paying jobs and went with them, all of them climbing aboard a Pullman car for their first train ride, looking for more money and excitement than they had any reasonable expectation of finding in Alma.