DeSoto County | |
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![]() DeSoto County Courthouse | |
![]() Location within the U.S. state of Mississippi | |
![]() Mississippi's location within the U.S. | |
Coordinates: 34°53′N89°59′W / 34.88°N 89.99°W | |
Country | ![]() |
State | ![]() |
Founded | February 9, 1836 |
Named for | Hernando de Soto |
Seat | Hernando |
Largest city | Southaven |
Area | |
• Total | 497 sq mi (1,290 km2) |
• Land | 476 sq mi (1,230 km2) |
• Water | 21 sq mi (50 km2) 4.2% |
Population (2020) | |
• Total | 185,314 |
• Density | 370/sq mi (140/km2) |
Time zone | UTC−6 (Central) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−5 (CDT) |
Congressional district | 1st |
Website | www |
DeSoto County is a county located on the northwestern border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 185,314, [1] making it the third-most populous county in Mississippi. Its county seat is Hernando. [2]
DeSoto County is part of the Memphis metropolitan area. It is the second-most populous county in that statistical area. The county has lowland areas that were developed in the 19th century for cotton plantations, and hill country in the eastern part of the county. [3]
DeSoto County, Mississippi, was formally established February 9, 1836. [4] The original county lines included territory now part of Tate County, which was carved out in 1873. [4]
The county is named for Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, the first European explorer known to reach the Mississippi River. [5] The county seat, Hernando, is also named in his honor. De Soto reportedly died in that area in May 1542, although some accounts suggest that he died near Lake Village, Arkansas.
Indian artifacts collected in DeSoto County link it with prehistoric groups of Woodland and Mississippian culture peoples. [ citation needed ] Members of the Mississippian culture, who built complex settlements and earthwork monuments throughout the Mississippi River Valley and its major tributaries, met Hernando de Soto in the mid-16th century when he explored what is now North Mississippi. By tradition, he is believed to have traveled with his expedition through present-day DeSoto County. Some scholars speculate that de Soto discovered the Mississippi River west of present-day Lake Cormorant, built rafts there, and crossed to present-day Crowley's Ridge, Arkansas. Based on records of the expedition and archeology, the National Park Service has designated a "DeSoto Corridor" from Coahoma County, Mississippi to the Chickasaw Bluff in Memphis.
The Mississippian culture declined and disappeared, and in most areas this preceded European contact. Scholars speculate this may have followed changes in the environment. The town named Chicasa, which De Soto visited, was probably the ancestral home of the historical Chickasaw, who are descended from the Mississippian culture. They had lived in the area for centuries before white settlers began arriving. Present-day Pontotoc, Mississippi developed near the Chickasaw "Long Town", which was composed of several villages near each other. The Chickasaw Nation regarded much of western present-day Tennessee and northern Mississippi as their traditional hunting grounds.
The Chickasaw traded furs for French goods, and the French established several small settlements among them. However, France ceded its claim to territories east of the Mississippi River to Britain in 1763, after having been defeated in the Seven Years' War. The United States acquired the area from the British as part of the treaty that ended the American Revolution.
The Chickasaw finally ceded most of their land to the United States under pressure during Indian Removal, and a treaty in 1832. They were forced to remove to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.
Negotiations began in September 1816 between the United States government and the Chickasaw nation and concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Pontotoc in October 1832. During those 16 years, federal officials pressed the Chickasaw for cessions of land to extinguish their land claims to enable white settlement in their territory. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, authorizing forcible removal if necessary to extinguish Native American claims in the Southeast. From 1832 to 1836, government surveyors mapped the 6,442,000 acres (26,070 km2) of the Chickasaw domain and divided it into townships, ranges and sections. The Mississippi Legislature formed 10 new counties, including DeSoto, Tunica, Marshall, and Tate, from the territory.
By treaty, the land was assigned by sections of 640 acres (2.6 km2) to individual Indian households. The Chickasaw, a numerically small tribe, were assigned 2,422,400 acres (9,803 km2) of land by using that formula. The government declared the remainder as surplus and disposed of the remaining 400,000 acres (1,600 km2) at public sale. The Indians received at least $1.25 per acre for their land. The government land sold for 75 cents per acre or less.
During and after the Civil War, the area was developed as large plantations by planters for cultivation of cotton, a leading commodity crop. Before the Civil War, they had depended on the labor of thousands of enslaved African Americans. After the war and emancipation, many freedmen stayed in the area, but shaped their own lives by working on small plots as sharecroppers or tenant farmers, rather than on large labor gangs on the plantations. Reliance on agriculture meant that the area did not develop much economically well into the 20th century, and both whites and blacks suffered economically.
In 1890, the state legislature disenfranchised most blacks under the new constitution, which used poll taxes and literacy tests to raise barriers to voter registration. In the early 20th century, many people left the rural county for cities to gain other opportunities. Most blacks could not vote in Mississippi until the late 1960s, after the passage of federal legislation.
During the Great Depression, the Southern Tenant Farmers Union was organized in 1934. It was open to both black and white sharecroppers and worked to gain better deals and fair accounting from local white landowners. Whites in DeSoto County resisted the effort. In 1935, a white lynch mob attacked early union organizer and minister Reverend T. A. Allen, shot him, and threw him into the Coldwater River. [6] One account said that his body was weighted by chains and that authorities claimed it to be a suicide. [7]
In its 2015 report on Lynching in America (2015), the Equal Justice Institute documented 12 lynchings in the county from 1877 to 1950. [8] Most lynchings in the South took place around the turn of the 20th century. [8]
Since the late 20th century, DeSoto County has experienced considerable suburban development related to the growth of Memphis.
As part of the Memphis, Tennessee metropolitan area, the early-21st-century DeSoto County has become one of the 40 fastest-growing counties in the United States. That is attributed to suburban development as middle-class and wealthier blacks leave Memphis to acquire newer housing and commute to Memphis for work. Some observers have characterized the shift as black flight, but it is also typical of the pattern of postwar suburban growth in which people who could afford it moved to newer housing in suburbs. [9]
Such suburban residential development in the county has been most noticeable in the Mississippi cities of Southaven, Olive Branch, and Horn Lake. Also stimulating development in the formerly rural area is the massive casino/resort complex, in the neighboring Tunica County, which is the sixth-largest gambling district in the United States.[ citation needed ]
DeSoto County, as did most Southern counties, voted predominantly for the Democratic candidate through 1956. A shift in this pattern took place beginning in 1964, as with the rest of the Solid South. The only Democrat to take DeSoto County since then has been Jimmy Carter, in his successful 1976 bid.
Year | Republican | Democratic | Third party | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
2020 | 46,462 | 61.03% | 28,265 | 37.13% | 1,397 | 1.84% |
2016 | 43,089 | 65.13% | 20,591 | 31.13% | 2,475 | 3.74% |
2012 | 43,559 | 66.21% | 21,575 | 32.79% | 660 | 1.00% |
2008 | 44,222 | 68.75% | 19,627 | 30.51% | 474 | 0.74% |
2004 | 36,306 | 72.30% | 13,583 | 27.05% | 326 | 0.65% |
2000 | 24,879 | 71.21% | 9,586 | 27.44% | 471 | 1.35% |
1996 | 18,135 | 53.53% | 10,282 | 30.35% | 5,464 | 16.13% |
1992 | 16,104 | 58.40% | 8,833 | 32.03% | 2,638 | 9.57% |
1988 | 14,681 | 72.50% | 5,449 | 26.91% | 120 | 0.59% |
1984 | 12,576 | 73.88% | 4,369 | 25.67% | 77 | 0.45% |
1980 | 9,655 | 58.80% | 6,344 | 38.64% | 420 | 2.56% |
1976 | 6,240 | 43.60% | 7,756 | 54.19% | 316 | 2.21% |
1972 | 7,917 | 80.88% | 1,557 | 15.91% | 315 | 3.22% |
1968 | 1,092 | 13.10% | 1,898 | 22.77% | 5,346 | 64.13% |
1964 | 2,928 | 86.40% | 461 | 13.60% | 0 | 0.00% |
1960 | 553 | 26.56% | 795 | 38.18% | 734 | 35.25% |
1956 | 398 | 21.56% | 1,236 | 66.96% | 212 | 11.48% |
1952 | 754 | 36.92% | 1,288 | 63.08% | 0 | 0.00% |
1948 | 14 | 0.97% | 137 | 9.45% | 1,299 | 89.59% |
1944 | 123 | 7.30% | 1,561 | 92.70% | 0 | 0.00% |
1940 | 40 | 2.61% | 1,491 | 97.13% | 4 | 0.26% |
1936 | 13 | 0.96% | 1,343 | 99.04% | 0 | 0.00% |
1932 | 13 | 0.92% | 1,396 | 98.80% | 4 | 0.28% |
1928 | 64 | 4.50% | 1,357 | 95.50% | 0 | 0.00% |
1924 | 17 | 1.57% | 1,065 | 98.43% | 0 | 0.00% |
1920 | 27 | 3.20% | 816 | 96.57% | 2 | 0.24% |
1916 | 12 | 1.37% | 861 | 98.51% | 1 | 0.11% |
1912 | 10 | 1.73% | 546 | 94.63% | 21 | 3.64% |
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 497 square miles (1,290 km2), of which 476 square miles (1,230 km2) is land and 21 square miles (54 km2) (4.2%) is water. [11]
While there is no fixed-route transit within the county, Memphis Area Transit Authority, Amtrak, Greyhound Lines, Megabus and Delta Bus Lines serve nearby Memphis.
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1840 | 7,002 | — | |
1850 | 19,042 | 172.0% | |
1860 | 23,336 | 22.6% | |
1870 | 32,021 | 37.2% | |
1880 | 22,924 | −28.4% | |
1890 | 24,183 | 5.5% | |
1900 | 24,751 | 2.3% | |
1910 | 23,130 | −6.5% | |
1920 | 24,359 | 5.3% | |
1930 | 25,438 | 4.4% | |
1940 | 26,663 | 4.8% | |
1950 | 24,599 | −7.7% | |
1960 | 23,891 | −2.9% | |
1970 | 35,885 | 50.2% | |
1980 | 53,930 | 50.3% | |
1990 | 67,910 | 25.9% | |
2000 | 107,199 | 57.9% | |
2010 | 161,252 | 50.4% | |
2020 | 185,314 | 14.9% | |
2023 (est.) | 193,247 | [12] | 4.3% |
U.S. Decennial Census [13] 1790-1960 [14] 1900-1990 [15] 1990-2000 [16] 2010-2013 [17] |
Race | Num. | Perc. |
---|---|---|
White | 108,466 | 58.53% |
Black or African American | 55,972 | 30.2% |
Native American | 298 | 0.16% |
Asian | 3,023 | 1.63% |
Pacific Islander | 137 | 0.07% |
Other/Mixed | 7,257 | 3.92% |
Hispanic or Latino | 10,161 | 5.48% |
As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 185,314 people, 65,220 households, and 47,230 families residing in the county.
As of the 2013 U.S.census estimates, there were 168,240 people living in the county. 70.3% were non-Hispanic White, 21.5% Black or African American, 1.6% Asian, 2.6% Native American, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 5.0% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race). [19] The median income for a family was $66,377 and the mean income was $75,875. [20] DeSoto County has the highest median income in Mississippi and the second highest mean income after Madison County.
According to the 2000 census, [21] the largest self-identified ancestry groups in DeSoto County were English 53.1%, Scots-Irish 15.1%, African 11.4%, and Irish 4.5%. Since then the percentage of African-American population in the county has nearly doubled, as the total county population has also grown.
DeSoto County is known for its golf courses. Velvet Cream, known as 'The Dip' by locals, is a landmark restaurant in the county. Operating since 1947, it is the oldest continually running restaurant in the county. In 2010, it was awarded 'Best Ice Cream in Mississippi' by USA Today. [22] DeSoto County was also previously known as the home of Maywood Beach, a water park that closed in 2003 after more than 70 years of operation.
A popular attraction is the DeSoto County Museum located in the county seat of Hernando. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10–5. Admission is free but donations are encouraged. Exhibits include displays on Hernando DeSoto, Civil War history, French colonial and American antebellum homes of the county, civil rights, and the history of each of the county's municipalities. [23]
An eighteenth-century French colonial log house (see photo to the right) has been preserved from the time of French trading and settlement along the Mississippi. This house is similar in style to several French colonial houses preserved in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, where many French settled after France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain following its defeat in the Seven Years' War.
Hernando DeSoto Park, located on Bass Road 6 mi (9.7 km) west of Walls, is a 41 acres (17 ha) park that features a hiking/walking trail, river overlook, picnic area, and boat launch. It is the only location in DeSoto County with public access to the Mississippi River. [24]
Public education in DeSoto County is provided by the DeSoto County School District, the school district for the entire county. [25] It is the state's largest school district.[ citation needed ] The district is responsible for the operation of eight high schools, eight middle schools, three intermediate (Grades 3–5) and numerous primary schools.
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County, in the southwesternmost part of the state, and is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-most populous city in Tennessee after Nashville.
Mobile County is located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is the third-most populous county in the state after Jefferson and Madison counties. As of the 2020 census, its population was 414,809. Its county seat is Mobile, which was founded as a deepwater port on the Mobile River. The only such port in Alabama, it has long been integral to the economy for providing access to inland waterways as well as the Gulf of Mexico.
Tipton County is a county located on the western end of the U.S. state of Tennessee, in the Mississippi Delta region. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,970. Its county seat is Covington. Tipton County, founded in 1823, is part of the Memphis, TN-MS-AR Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Shelby County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 929,744. It is the largest of the state's 95 counties, both in terms of population and geographic area. Its county seat is Memphis, a port on the Mississippi River and the second most populous city in Tennessee. The county was named for Governor Isaac Shelby (1750–1826) of Kentucky. It is one of only two remaining counties in Tennessee with a majority African American population, along with Haywood County.
The Chickasaw are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as a member of the Muskogean language family. In the present day, they are organized as the federally recognized Chickasaw Nation.
Tunica County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,782. Its county seat is Tunica. The county is named for the Tunica Native Americans. Most migrated to central Louisiana during the colonial period.
Tate County is a county located in the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,064. Its county seat is Senatobia. Organized in 1873 during the Reconstruction era, from portions of DeSoto, Marshall, and Tunica counties, the county is named for Thomas Simpson Tate, one of the first prominent American settlers of the area.
Crittenden County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 48,163. The county seat is Marion, and the largest city is West Memphis.
West Memphis is the largest city in Crittenden County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 26,245 at the 2010 census, ranking it as the state's 18th largest city, behind Bella Vista. It is part of the Memphis metropolitan area, and is located directly across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee.
Hernando is the county seat of DeSoto County, on the northwestern border of Mississippi, United States. The population was 17,138 according to the 2020 census records. DeSoto County is the second-most-populous county in the Memphis metropolitan area, which includes counties in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi.
Tunica is a town in and the county seat of Tunica County, Mississippi, United States, near the Mississippi River. Until the early 1990s when casino gambling was introduced in the area, Tunica had been one of the most impoverished places in the United States. Despite this economic improvement, Tunica's population continues to decline from its peak in 1970.
The Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe, formerly known as the Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe of Louisiana, is a federally recognized tribe of primarily Tunica and Biloxi people, located in east central Louisiana. Descendants of Ofo (Siouan-speakers), Avoyel, and Choctaw (Muskogean) are also enrolled in the tribe.
Tunica Resorts, formerly known as Robinsonville until 2005, is a census-designated place (CDP) in northern Tunica County, Mississippi, United States, north of the county seat of Tunica. The community is situated mostly between the Mississippi River and U.S. Route 61, along the border with Arkansas. The population as of the 2020 census was 2,132.
Walls is a town located in northern DeSoto County, Mississippi, United States, near the Mississippi River, part of the larger region known as "The Delta", and known for its rich, dark soil. As it is in the upper northwest corner of Mississippi, it is in the Memphis, Tennessee metropolitan area. Its ZIP code is 38680. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 1,162, with an estimated population of 1,463 in 2018.
The Koroa were one of the groups of Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands who lived in the Mississippi Valley before French colonization. The Koroa lived in the Yazoo River basin in present-day northwest Mississippi.
Eudora is a census-designated place and unincorporated community located in southwestern DeSoto County, Mississippi, United States, approximately 25 miles (40 km) south of Memphis, Tennessee. The intersection of Mississippi Highway 301 and old Mississippi Highway 304 has been the traditional heart of Eudora for decades.
The Tunica people are a group of linguistically and culturally related Native American tribes in the Mississippi River Valley, which include the Tunica ; the Yazoo; the Koroa ; and possibly the Tioux. They first encountered Europeans in 1541 – members of the Hernando de Soto expedition.
Commerce is a ghost town in Tunica County, Mississippi, United States. Commerce Landing was the town's port.
The Carson Mounds, also known as the Carson Site and Carson-Montgomery- is a large Mississippian culture archaeological site located near Clarksdale in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States, in the Yazoo Basin. Only a few large earthen mounds are still present at Carson to this day. Archaeologists have suggested that Carson is one of the more important archaeological sites in the state of Mississippi.
Quigualtam or Quilgualtanqui was a powerful Native American Plaquemine culture polity encountered in 1542–1543 by the Hernando de Soto expedition. The capital of the polity and its chieftain also bore the same name; although neither the chief nor his settlements were ever visited in person by the expedition. Their encounters consisted of messages sent by runners and a three-day long canoe battle on the Mississippi River. Multiple archaeological cultures, archaeological sites, and protohistoric and early historic period Native American groups have been proposed by historians and archaeologists to identify the polity, but their identity will probably never be known with any degree of certainty. The chroniclers of the DeSoto expedition said the chiefdoms near the Mississippi River, especially Guigualtam, were the best they encountered during their three-year journey through the southeastern United States.