Stafford Springs, Mississippi is an unincorporated community located in

Jasper County Jasper County is the name of eight counties in the United States of America. All are named in honor of Sergeant William Jasper, a hero of the Revolutionary War. Five counties share a boundary with a Newton County, named for John Newton John ...

, Mississippi, United States, along

U.S. Route 11 {{Infobox road , country=USA , type=US , route=11 , map={{maplink, frame=yes, plain=yes, frame-align=center, frame-width=290, frame-height=330, type=line, from=U.S. Route 11.map , map_custom=yes , map_notes=US 11 in red, US 11E in blue, US 11W in ...

History

The community was named for Edward Stafford, who settled in the area in the late 19th century. Stafford was alerted to the presence of a mineral spring in the area by

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

s, who took their wounded and sick there for its purported healing powers. On May 19, 1892, the Stafford Mineral Springs and Hotel Company was organized in New Orleans. A bottling works was founded the next year and the spring water was soon shipped throughout the country. The Stafford Springs Hotel opened in 1899. The shareholders sold the company in 1918, and visitors stopped arriving to the springs during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. The hotel continued to be opened yearly from April to September. In 1952, the Stafford Springs Hotel was demolished. The area was then briefly used for a

dude ranch A guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agritourism. History Guest ranches arose in response to the romanticization of the American West that began to occur ...

. The

Mississippi Art Colony 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. Mississ ...

was located in Stafford Springs from 1962 to 1970. A post office operated under the name Stafford Springs from 1919 to 1955.

References

External links

Postcard of the Stafford Springs Hotel from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History
Unincorporated communities in Jasper County, Mississippi Unincorporated communities in Mississippi {{JasperCountyMS-geo-stub