Place:Yazoo City, Yazoo, Mississippi, United States

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NameYazoo City
Alt namesHanans Bluffsource: USGS, GNIS Digital Gazetteer (1994) GNIS28018217
Manchestersource: (Name at incorporation)
Queen City of the Deltasource: USGS, GNIS Digital Gazetteer (1994) GNIS28018217
TypeCity
Coordinates32.856°N 90.407°W
Located inYazoo, Mississippi, United States
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Yazoo City is a U.S. city in Yazoo County, Mississippi. It was named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle in 1682 as "Rivière des Yazous" in reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's mouth. It is the county seat of Yazoo County and the principal city of the Yazoo City Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the larger Jackson–Yazoo City Combined Statistical Area. According to the 2010 census, the population was 11,403. The most important industry in 2021 is a group of federal prisons.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The community now known as Yazoo City was founded in 1824 with the name Hannan's Bluff. It was later renamed Manchester, then changed to Yazoo City in 1841. Yazoo City became the county seat in 1849. A yellow fever epidemic struck Yazoo City in 1853.

During the American Civil War, the Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas was completed at a makeshift shipyard in Yazoo City after the Confederate loss of New Orleans and Memphis. During her short career, the Arkansas challenged the Union navy's control of the Mississippi River and helped avert the early fall of Vicksburg. On May 21, 1863, as a Union fleet steamed up the Yazoo River, the Confederate forces burned down the shipyard to keep their foes from capturing the vessels being built there. The Federal forces then burned down the sawmill and lumberyard before withdrawing. After their capture of Vicksburg in July 1863, another Union raid briefly occupied Yazoo City, but this time the Union ironclad USS Baron DeKalb was sunk by a mine. Federal troops occupied the town in September and again in October 1863. Another occupation resulted in the Battle of Yazoo City on March 5, 1864 between the Union troops and Confederates led by Robert V. Richardson and Lawrence Sullivan Ross. The Union troops held their ground but departed the following day. The Federal forces returned again on May 19, 1864, doing more damage to the town.

Yazoo City was rebuilt, but yellow fever struck and took more victims in 1878. On May 25, 1904, a fire destroyed much of central Yazoo City. According to a local legend, the fire was caused by a witch avenging her death. In reality, a boy playing with matches accidentally set a house ablaze. The fire quickly spread, and three-fourths of the town was destroyed, including most of the homes. It was stopped by a canal, which saved the new courthouse (built in 1872 to replace the one burned by the Union forces) and 10 antebellum homes nearby. The town took almost two years to recover.

In 1915, the Orr Modern Motor Car Company was founded in Yazoo City by G.A. Wilson and C.D. Orr, with capital of $2,000,000. Despite its name, the company was focused just on making Orr's innovate worm drive and assembled only one automobile as a prototype. Not long after, Orr shut its doors.

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 did much damage to the entire Delta, but Yazoo City was restored and is now protected by an effective flood-prevention system.

Tornado History

A strong tornado, rated EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita scale and with a path width of , hit Yazoo County on April 24, 2010. Four people were killed in the Yazoo City area, and a number were seriously injured; four of the victims were airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in the capital city of Jackson, away. The Governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, toured the area in a National Guard helicopter and held a news conference on the disaster at 3:30 pm. The tornado and the aftermath were shown in an episode of the Discovery Channel series Storm Chasers, and several YouTube videos show considerable detail and descriptions.

On November 29, 2010 around 8:05 pm local time, Yazoo City was struck by two EF2 tornadoes: the first one tracked southwest of town. The second went right through downtown causing significant damage to several buildings.

A high-end EF1 tornado passed through the southeast side of the city on May 2, 2021. Multiple mobile homes were destroyed and trees, power lines, and homes were damaged.

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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Yazoo City, Mississippi. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.