Delta is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in Coahoma County,

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, United States. During its heyday in the 1830s to the 1850s it was the county "seat of justice" and had some commercial significance due to its location on the Yazoo Pass connection from the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

to inland waterways. However, the town struggled to thrive due to frequent flooding and a rather malarial site. During the American Civil War the commercial buildings and residences of Delta were all burned down, apparently by Union troops hoping to disrupt cotton smuggling via the boat landing. Delta today is covered by farmland and a portion of the Mississippi Levee. Nothing remains of the original settlement.

History

The town site was chosen because of its location on the crucial Yazoo Pass, which was the "principal water passage between the Mississippi and the Coldwater rivers. The Coldwater, in turn, provided access to the Tallahatchie, the Yalobusha and the Yazoo rivers." In early years it was primarily a woodyard that sold fuel for wood-fired

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

engines; other lumber products were also shipped from Delta. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

was moved from

Port Royal Port Royal () was a town located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest and most prosperous city in the Caribbean, functioning as the cen ...

to Delta in 1842. In 1844, Delta was surveyed and laid off into 174 lots. The town had a population of about 700, and was a busy steamboat port. Delta incorporated in 1848. That same year, the river flooded the town, forcing many residents to relocate to nearby Friars Point. The county seat was moved to Friars Point in 1850. During the American Civil War, sometime in early December 1862, all of the buildings in Delta were burned down, possibly because the boat landing had been used as a transshipment point for cotton smugglers. A post office operated under the name Delta from 1840 to 1890, but the office was discontinued/closed and reorganized three times during that period of time. By 1890, nothing remained of Delta.

References

{{authority control Former populated places in Coahoma County, Mississippi Former populated places in Mississippi Mississippi populated places on the Mississippi River Populated places destroyed during the American Civil War