The Yazoo River, formed by the confluence of the Yalobusha and Tallahatchie rivers at Greenwood, flows southwest toward Vicksburg, where it meets the Mississippi River. Its eastern bluffs rim the southeastern edge of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta. Locations on the bluffs were prized not only for their dramatic overlooks and vistas but also for being above the annual high-water level and the yellow fever that frequently visited the Delta. The four counties in this region each have sections of bluff and lowland, but their primary towns all command the high ground and served as shipping points for the Delta’s rich cotton crops. Delta planters with large landholdings often maintained a residence in a bluff-top town, especially in Vicksburg, tying the bluffs to the Delta both culturally and economically. Hardwoods from the bayous and swamps fed the lumber industry, especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Railroads supplanted river transportation by the early twentieth century, but it was the shift to mechanized cotton production after World War II that brought decline to all of the counties, depopulating rural communities and leaving county seats with a smaller economic base.
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