Austin is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

and

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Tunica County 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 th ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 51. Once a thriving shipping port on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

, Austin served as

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

from 1847 to 1888. Earlier county seats were

Commerce Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...

and Peyton.

History

Austin was founded in 1847 and named for Austin Miller, who donated the land on which the town and a courthouse were built. Austin was burned in 1863 by Union soldiers of the

Mississippi Marine Brigade The Mississippi Marine Brigade was a Union Army amphibious unit which included the United States Ram Fleet and operated from November 1862 to August 1864 during the American Civil War. The brigade was established to act swiftly against Confedera ...

under the command of Alfred W. Ellet. Two houses were spared. The town rebuilt and was incorporated in 1871, though it is no longer incorporated. In 1884, the area was flooded when a nearby levee broke. When waters receded, a large sandbar had been left between the town and the Mississippi River, and steamboats could no longer land. The completion of the

Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railway The Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railway was built between 1888 and 1890 and was admitted to the Illinois Central Railroad system in 1892. It ran between Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, through Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Baton ...

east of Austin in the late 1880s further contributed to its isolation. In 1888, the county seat was moved to Tunica, a more accessible location. The construction of the Hardin Cutoff in 1942, which created

Tunica Lake Tunica Lake (also called Tunica Cutoff) is an oxbow lake located in Lee County, Arkansas and Tunica County, Mississippi. The Arkansas-Mississippi border follows the center of the narrow, curving lake. History Prior to 1942, the north-south flo ...

, moved the Mississippi River an additional west of Austin.

Demographics

2020 census

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.''

Notable person

* Sport McAllister (1874–1962), professional baseball player.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Tunica County, Mississippi Unincorporated communities in Mississippi Census-designated places in Tunica County, Mississippi Memphis metropolitan area Mississippi populated places on the Mississippi River