Port Royal is a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

Coahoma County Coahoma County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 26,151. Its county seat is Clarksdale. The Clarksdale, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Coahoma County. It is lo ...

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. Once a busy 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 ...

, Port Royal today is covered by wetland and a portion of the Mississippi Levee. Nothing remains of the original settlement.

History

Port Royal is the oldest town in Coahoma County, with land sales recorded prior to 1836. At that time, the Mississippi River curved east around "Horseshoe Bend", with Port Royal located at the east end of the bend. The town may have originally been called "Powhatan", and its name was likely changed by William J. Oldham, an early settler—born in

Port Royal, South Carolina Port Royal is a List of cities and towns in South Carolina, town on Port Royal Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 14,220 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Hilton Head Is ...

—who owned land on the south bank of Horseshoe Bend. In 1836, the newly created Coahoma County government (called the "Board of Police") designated Port Royal as its first county seat. Port Royal was the largest and busiest town in Coahoma County, with a landing for steamboats and a few small trading stores and cabins. John Clark, the founder of Clarksdale, landed at Port Royal when he first arrived in the county. Port Royal did not have a post office, and never incorporated. In 1841, high waters on the Mississippi River flooded the town, and in 1842, the county seat was moved to the town of

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. The Mississippi River changed its course in 1848, creating the "Horseshoe Cutoff", and removing Port Royal from the contiguous flow of the river. As sediment built near the ends of Horseshoe Bend, the waterway became an oxbow lake (now called "Horseshoe Lake"). No longer a riverfront town, the economic impact was immediate and Port Royal ceased to exist.

References

{{authority control Former populated places in Coahoma County, Mississippi Former populated places in Mississippi Mississippi populated places on the Mississippi River