Cotton Gin Port Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Site
Historical marker at the Cotton Gin Port Site
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Nearest city	Amory, Mississippi
Coordinates	33°58′15″N88°32′35″W / 33.97083°N 88.54306°W /33.97083; -88.54306
Area	100 acres (40 ha)
NRHP reference No.	72000700[1]
Added to NRHP	October 18, 1972

Cotton Gin Port is aghost town inMonroe County,Mississippi, United States.

Cotton Gin Port was located at33°58′15″N88°32′35″W / 33.97083°N 88.54306°W /33.97083; -88.54306 on the east bank of theTombigbee river.^[2]

Cotton Gin Port was the first town settled by Europeans in what became northMississippi. It was developed on the east bank of theTombigbee River, at a crossing of vital Indian trails. This had been a base of expeditions of French explorersJean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville in 1736 andVaudreuil in 1752.

After the United States acquired the territory, it was first considered part ofMarion County in theAlabama Territory.^[3]

The new demarcation lines of 1820–21 established a state boundary that allocated the town and related area to Mississippi.

The early U.S. government built acotton gin in 1801 at Cotton Gin Port as part of a "plan of civilization" for the localChickasaw, whom it wanted to have adopt European-American customs. The settlement soon became recognized as a trading post for business with the Chickasaw. A road,Gaines Trace, was built to the town in 1811 and 1812. This road ran from close to present-dayMuscle Shoals on theTennessee River to Cotton Gin Port, where it crossed the Tombigbee. From there it continued south toFort Stoddert, Alabama.

The youngest person todie in the Alamo, William Philip King, was born in Cotton Gin Port. His family soon moved to Louisiana, then Texas. He died at 16 years helping to defend the Alamo.^[4]

As railroads were constructed in the region, theKansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad bypassed Cotton Gin Port, and established a new railroad town atAmory, Mississippi. In a pattern repeated in numerous other places, this bypass resulted in the older town being abandoned, as businesses and residents moved to have access to the railroad at Amory.

The ruins of the old town can still be found between theTenn-Tom Waterway and theTombigbee River. Relics from the former settlement can be seen at theAmory Municipal Museum.Levi Colbert, a chief of the Chickasaw, is said to have lived on the bluff west of Cotton Gin Port, near a large spreading oak known as the council tree, a meeting place for tribal elders. The former cotton gin was built near here.^[5]

• Treaty of the Chickasaw Council House (Chickasaw)

• Elliott, Jack D. and Wells, Mary Ann. (2003).Cotton Gin Port : a frontier settlement on the Upper Tombigbee. Jackson, Mississippi: Quail Ridge Press for the Mississippi Historical Society.ISBN 0-938896-88-1

• Albert James Pickett: HISTORY OF ALABAMA.
• Rowland's History of Cotton Gin Port, Monroe County, Mississippi

• Former populated places in Monroe County, Mississippi
• Ghost towns in Mississippi
• National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Mississippi
• Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi
• Chickasaw
• Louisiana (New France)
• Pre-statehood history of Mississippi
• Native American history of Mississippi

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