Mississippi Ghost Towns
ANTIOCH - Prentiss Co.
Destroyed by Union troops during the Civil War. It never was rebuilt. The actual location is near the Antioch Baptist Church near Jumpertown. Exact location not determined. Jumpertown is in the northeast corner of the state, southwest of Corinth, in the northwest corner of the county.
AUGUSTA (1ST SITE)- Perry Co.
Original site is on the north side of the Leaf River across from New Augusta. New Augusta is on US 98 about 20 miles southeast of Hattiesburg.
BAY SPRINGS - Tishomingo Co.
On SH 4 and west side of Mack's Creek, five miles west of Dennis. This was an 1880s era milling and ginning town. In addition to the mills and cotton gins, there was a hotel, saloons and a couple stores. It is possibly under the Bay Springs Reservoir.
BLACKWATER -Lafayette Co.
Was eighteen miles northwest of Oxford, just south of the county line. It was founded around 1859 was named after nearby Blackwater Creek. It had faded out by 1937.
BOLER’S INN -Newton Co.
At or near the town of Union, just south of the county line and northwest of Meridian. This 1800s era tavern and travelers’ stop was used as a field hospital during Sherman’s march to the sea. It was one of the few buildings spared the wrath of the soldiers in April 1863. It is reported to still be standing.
DALEVILLE -Lauderdale Co.
On SH 39, this class D town sits just south of the county line 15 miles north of Meridian. In 1930 it had 125 folks, which had declined to 60 by 1980.
DALLAS -Lafayette Co.
Located twenty miles southeast of Oxford and eight miles south of Yocona, It was alive between 1842, and 1935.
EATON -Lafayette Co.
Located twelve miles southwest of Oxford. From 1833-1836, it was called Toby Tubby's Ferry. In 1836 there was an attempt to make a real town here. Streets and building lots were laid out and a couple stores were built, but a depression in 1837 killed the dreams.
EDSVILLE -Holmes Co.
In 1930 this tiny town mustered 25 souls, but is not shown on any modern maps. It was on a secondary road about four miles southwest of the tiny town of West, which has a 1990 population of 184 and sits on US 51 nine miles northeast of Durant. Edsville's site is at or near the I-55 rest stop in the same location.
FLAT TOP -Hancock Co.
Located just northeast of Gaineville, this small town got its name from a flat-roofed building at the town center (which was more like a crossroad). In 1961, the land was bought to serve as a “buffer zone” for the NASA rocket test-firing facility. Little to nothing remains from this town today.
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FORT BAYOU -Jackson Co.
Found this one in the state archives. It was listed in the 1890 and 1900 business census. Located on the north shore of Fort Bayou where Bayou Talla comes in. It was south of Bayou Talla Road and the locally famous rock and roll cemetery.
On the high banks of Fort Bayou among stately live oaks was the town of Fort Bayou. Records show a bank stores, a church and dwellings. All that is left is a lonely cemetery, a cattle dip, brick foundations and some old pier pilings in the bayou. The old place is across the bayou from present-day Ocean Springs. No one seems to recall much about the old town.
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FORT MASSACHUSETTS -Harrison Co.
On the west end of Ship Island, 12 miles offshore from Gulfport. This class C masonry Civil War-era fort is only accessible by boat. It was built between 1859 and 1866, and occupied by Confederate troops. It was never fully garrisoned, and was finally abandoned by the army in 1900.
FORT MAUREPAS -Jackson Co.
This class A fort was originally built by the French and was finished in 1699. It is long gone. Until August, 2005, a replica of the fort sat on the east side of Biloxi Bay in Ocean Springs, about a mile from the original site. In August, 2005, that replica was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and according to an E-mail rec’d August 19, 2006, there are no plans to rebuild it.
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GAINESVILLE -Hancock Co.
Gainesville earned its reputation as the center of Hancock County in the mid to late 1800’s. Aside from its steady lumber business, it served as a busy crossroads community for travelers to and from New Orleans. The town prospered until the Great Depression of the 1930s, when all but one of its lumber mills closed down. Later on, the county relocated its center (County Seat? – GBS) to the small coastal town of “Bay St. Louis”. In 1961, the land was sold to NASA and Gainesville became ground zero for booster rocket testing. Some of the old buildings and structures can still be seen today in the NASA compound, and there is a program being sought out to possibly restore a few of them for historical value.
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GARDEN CITY -Franklin Co.
This forgotten, tiny town is on SH 33, just north of the Homochitto River, about four miles north of Crosby, in the southwest corner of the county. In 1980 it had only 65 people.
GOMEZ- Lafayette Co.
This tiny farming community never developed beyond a cluster of farms. It was located eight miles northeast of Oxford, and showed promise of growth only from 1836 to 1840.
HARMON- Lamar Co.
Shown on the 1938 map on US 11, four miles southwest of Purvis, this town is not shown on present maps.
LIBERTY HILL -Lafayette Co.
Located 15 miles northeast of Oxford and established in 1844. The post office operated 1844-1912 when a rural route was established from Lafayette Springs. The town when the post office closed.
LOGTOWN- Hancock Co.
This old town is located just south of NASA’s Stennis Space Center east of the Pearl River and south of Picayune. On a 1938 map, it is shown north of the junction of present I-10/SH 607. (GBS)
Logtown was established in the early 1800s. This once booming town actually got its name from the logging industry and supplied logs to New Orleans. The unnamed location was known as “The Log Town,” and the name stuck. The town operated along the Pearl River as part of large chain of lumber mill industries, which boomed after the Civil War and became one of the largest lumber industries in the world. With the coming of the Great Depression, many of the mills closed, except one that was located on the Pearl River at Gainesville. The town was alive until it was sold by the state to NASA in 1961. In the end, Logtown and five of its neighboring towns were bulldozed into the ground, sparing only the cemeteries and roads.
MARYLAND- LeFlore Co.
DEAD NAME
The town of Maryland sprang up next to the original site of McNutt and over the years was renamed Schlater in honor of the Schlater family who donated a large tract of land to the town so it could be incorporated. The town of Schlater is small, but supports 2 cotton gins, a post office and a couple of convenience stores. Most of the older people are now gone and the young folks are moving away.
McNUTT- LeFlore Co.
There is a marker on the side of the highway between present day Cleveland and Schlater that tells about the tiny town of McNutt that is no more. McNutt was the county seat of Leflore County before the county was subdivided into Leflore and Sunflower Counties during Reconstruction. The little town had a courthouse (now a cotton field) and several stores.
MONROE- Forrest Co.
Located in the northwest corner of old Perry County MS., near the Jones county line. Apparently it had a post office from the 1820s until 1902. Location is in present day Forrest County. It is on the MS map for 1895.
MT. LOCUST INN- Adams Co.
The last remaining Natchez Trace inn, near Natchez.
NAPOLEON -Hancock Co.
This small settlement was located between Gaineville and Logtown. It originally got its name from being a staging point for the escape of Napolian Bonapart from his exile, which never happened. Little is known about the settlement, aside that it was used as housing for loggers and farmers. By the mid 1900s, the town was mostly in shambles and the Department of Transportation used part of the town to build an interstate across. In 1961, NASA bought the land for a booster rocket testing facility. Little to nothing remains from this town today.
ORWOOD -Lafayette Co.
Located in the southwest corner of the county, it was established around 1839. It was not called Orwood until the post office was established in 1885. The post office closed in 1905 and Orwood died.
PANOLA -Panola Co.
An old river port/former county seat on the Tallahatchie River near Batesville. When the railroad passed through, it bypassed the town. Panola relocated to the railroad, changing names to Batesville. One of the vacant buildings left behind was the brick courthouse, which was turned into a private home.
PIAVE -Greene Co.
This 1920s company lumber town is located on SH 63, about 15 miles northeast of Richton (Perry Co.), in the northwest corner of Greene Co. It is a couple miles north of the junction with SH 42. It is not shown on present highway maps.
PIERA -Lafayette Co.
Located eighteen miles northwest of Oxford, Piera was a late 1830s real estate promotion, looking to give Memphis some competition. It fizzled out, and Piera evolved into another tiny, faded mapdot agricultural community.
PRAIRIE MOUNT -Chickasaw Co.
Located six miles north of Okolona, which is on US 45A, 21 miles south of Tupelo, in the northeast corner of the county. It originally was a stagecoach stop, but when the railroad passed through the region, it missed the old town by a few miles, so in 1848 it moved to the railroad and renamed itself Okolona.
ROCKY SPRINGS -Unknown
RODNEY- Claiborne/Jefferson Co.
According to the State Department of Economic Development, Rodney is … “The only so-called ghost town we have is Rodney, although a few people still live there.” Rodney is shown on a 1938 era map at or near the county line along the east side of the Mississippi River, north of Rodney Lake, about ten miles northwest of Lorman, and about four miles due west of Alcorn.
RUSSUM Claiborne Co.
This faded town is located on US 61, five miles northeast of Lorman and seven miles south of Port Gibson. In 1930 it had 130 people, but by 1980 that had faded to 30. It is not shown on the current highway map.
SANTA ROSA -Hancock Co.
This town was actually supposed to have served as the residential subdivision for the many logging towns that operated in and around Gainesville. It faded along with the timber industry, and little is known from then on. Like many of the other towns that encompassed Gainesville, it too was bought by NASA in 1961. Little to nothing remains from this town today.
SPRINGDALE -Lafayette Co.
Located on the Yocana River, about 14 miles southwest of Oxford, it was established in 1858 on the Mississippi Central Railroad and named after local springs. It once had several stores along with a railroad station. It died prior to 1907. It is still shown on some maps as a rural community.
TEMPLE -Lauderdale Co.
TEMPLE, a former post office site, appears in Lauderdale County, Mississippi in the 1895 U.S. Atlas. This would appear to be in the County Commission District known as Beat 3, in the 2003 Mississippi General Highway Map series for Lauderdale Co. In 1900, two families with the surname TEMPLE, were living in the vicinity, which is approximately 1.5 miles northwest of the present day community of Obadiah, which in turn is north of Bailey. A USGS Topographic feature on the Daleville Quadrangle is listed as Temple Pond Dam with coordinates placing it on the Rogers Creek tributary on the north side of Haugewood Road. This road may have been named for the Haugewood Lumber Company and Sawmill, an early business which harvested forest product in the region.
WALTON -Lafayette Co.
Once located 19 miles northeast of Oxford, Walton was established in 1838. The post office arrived in 1866, closing in 1890 when the postmaster died. The town followed suit and by 1895 was dead.
WESTONIA -Hancock Co.
Westonia is perhaps one of the greatest off-shoots of the many "logtowns" in the area. The town was named after a famous 1800’s era lumber entrepreneur, Henry Weston. The population was up to 3000 folks, five times greater than its neighboring towns. However, after the Great Depression of the 1930s, the population dwindled to about 300-400 residents and eventually with help from the highway system and the buffer zone from NASA's Stennis Test Rocket Facility, the town became extinct. Little to nothing remains from this town today.
WHITE HORSE TAVERN Adams Co.
At the junction of US 61 and the Old Woodville Road, several miles south of Natchez. This old travel stop/tavern was located on the southern end of the Natchez Trace.
WILLIAMSVILLE- Grenada Co.
Located 18 miles west of Grenada near the county line. Williamsville was destroyed when the Grenada Lake was built. The town evolved near the antebellum plantation of Maj. John R. Williams and his son Capt. Jack Williams.
WINBORN- Benton Co.
On US 78, 15 miles southeast of Holly Springs and two miles southeast of Potts Camp. In 1930 had 105 people, but isn't even shown on present maps. In 1912 an iron foundry and its supporting town was established here, at the site of the only iron producing mine in Mississippi. Three years later the foundry closed, and the town faded. In 1980 it still had a population of 50.
WYATT-Lafayette Co.
This class A town was located on the Tallahatchie River in the northwest corner of the county. It was established in 1836, incorporated in 1838 and once had 14 businesses, some of which included a hotel, and a Masonic Lodge. It was first called Mitchell's Bluff. It is now under the waters of Sardis Reservoir.
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