Camargo, Mississippi

Ghost town in Mississippi, United States

34°04′15.39″N 88°38′55.18″W / 34.0709417°N 88.6486611°W / 34.0709417; -88.6486611CountryUnited StatesStateMississippiCountyMonroeElevation

223 ft (68 m)GNIS feature ID709319^[1]

Camargo is a ghost town in Monroe County, Mississippi, United States.^[1] Once a thriving river port, Camargo declined following the completion of a nearby railway.

History

Camargo was laid out in 1847, and was named by a veteran of the Mexican–American War, after a war camp near Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico.^[2]^[3] Located on Old Town Creek, it was described as a "flourishing port", with schools, stores, a steamboat landing, a church, post office, cemetery, and Masonic Lodge.^[2]^[4]^[5]^[6] The Confederate States Army won a skirmish at Camargo on July 14, 1864.^[5]

The Mobile and Ohio Railroad opened about 4 mi (6.4 km) west of Camargo in the late 1840s. A plan to build a railway line from Camargo to the Mobile and Ohio mainline was prepared, and in 1854, the Camargo Branch Railroad Company was established, though the line was never constructed.^[7]^[8] With the success of the nearby railway, Old Town Creek was neglected and became filled with trees and debris, making it impractical as a transport route.^[9] "Under the new conditions of competition the little river ports suffered heavily and tended to dry up", and Camargo was abandoned by the 1870s.^[4]^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Camargo (historical)
^ ^a ^b Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer. J.B. Lippincott. 1855. p. 343.
^ The Northeast Mississippi Historical and Genealogical Society Quarterly. Northeast Mississippi Historical and Genealogical Society. 1996. p. 129.
^ ^a ^b Genealogical Society Quarterly. University of Wisconsin - Madison. 1998. p. 119.
^ ^a ^b "Camargo 1847". Historical Marker Database. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
^ List of the Post-offices in the United States. United States Post Office Department. 1859. p. 50.
^ Laws of the State of Mississippi. Barksdale & Jones, State Printers. 1854. p. 488.
^ ^a ^b Doster, James F.; Weaver, David D. (1981). Historical Settlement in the Upper Tombigbee Valley. Center for the Study of Southern History and Culture. p. 98. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.1031.5616.
^ Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, Part 2. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1882. p. 1326.