24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Zalma, MO

Zalma is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in southern Bollinger County in southeast Missouri, sitting on the banks of the winding Castor River where the river makes a horseshoe bend, and it is part of the Cape Girardeau–Jackson metropolitan area.

Zalma was once known as Bollinger's Mill, and when the railroad came to town the name was changed to Zalma after a railroad worker named Zalma Block — the name is also said to come from a Native American word meaning 'the end.'

Settlement at the site dates to 1800, when Urban Asherbranner built a log-and-brush dam on the Castor River and erected a water mill to grind corn, with Philip Bollinger settling nearby and the Bollinger family operating the mill for decades.

Zalma received its first post office in November 1876, and Missouri Route 51 runs directly through the community today.

In the 1880s the timber industry moved in — the Brown Cooperage Company bought thousands of acres of mostly white oak timberland for $1 an acre, and in 1884 the Bell Messler Company built a factory at Zalma to cut veneer and box laths.

Zalma peaked at 259 residents in the 1920 census; the 2000 census counted 93 people in 38 households, the 2010 census counted 122, and the 2020 census counted 73 residents.

The tiny Zalma R-V School District serves much of southern Bollinger County with an average enrollment of about 250 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, making it one of the smallest public school districts in Southeast Missouri.

Zalma High School's Bulldogs won the Missouri Class 1A boys' basketball state championship in the 1939–40 season, and the Lady Bulldogs won the Class 1A state volleyball championship in 1990–91.

Blue Pond, the deepest natural pond in the state of Missouri, is located just outside Zalma.