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Overview
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Coahoma County was chartered February 9, 1836 following the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, and constitutes one of the numerous counties formed from the Choctaw Cession of 1830. The County derives its name from the Choctaw word “Co-i-humma”, meaning red panther. This name was indicative of the large number of panthers then inhabiting the upper regions of the Delta.
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Hernando DeSoto was on a personal quest for gold in the New World when he discovered the Mississippi River in 1541. That DeSoto first looked out over the “great river” at Sunflower Landing in what would become, three centuries later, Coahoma County was the oldest theory uncovered by the United States DeSoto Commission report of January 1939.
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The town of Clarksdale, founded by John Clark in 1848, was incorporated in 1882 and is now the major city of the County. Located at the head of navigation on the Sunflower River, many of Clarksdale’s businesses are built fronting this small river. The original site of Clarksdale was also the former intersection of two important Indian routes: The Chakchiuma Trade Trail which ran northeastward to old Pontotoc, and the Lower Creek Trade paths which extended westward from Augusta, Georgia to New Mexico.
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In 1892, Clarksdale became one of the seats of Coahoma County when a controversy of more than ten years was compromised by the passage of an act of the Legislature. This act divided the County into judicial districts with two seats of the justice: one at Friars Point, the other at Clarksdale. In 1930, the two judicial districts were abolished and Clarksdale became the county seat. Frequent floods, a fire in 1889, and very poor roads hampered the early growth of Clarksdale. However, Clarksdale experienced consistent growth since 1900, and is now one of the largest cities in the Mississippi Delta.
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The first cotton crop to be commercially produced entirely by machinery, from planting to baling, was grown in 1944 on 28 acres owned by the Hopson Planting Company of Clarksdale, Mississippi. The soil was prepared and the crop seeded and cultivated by machines. Weeds were eradicated by flame and the crop was harvested with a mechanical picker. Clarksdale also has the distinction of being the home of the first franchised Holiday Inn in the world (source: Linton Weeks, Clarksdale & CoahomaCounty: A History, Carnegie Public Library, Clarksdale, MS, 1982).
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Clarksdale’s heritage is rich and diverse. At one time or another, the town has been home to W.C. Handy, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Sam Cook, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Tennessee Williams, Ike Turner, the Staple Singers, the Five Blind Boys, and many others. Coahoma County was the birthplace of iconic Country singer Conway Twitty.
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