Official Name: | Camargo, Mississippi |
Settlement Type: | Ghost town |
Pushpin Map: | Mississippi#USA |
Pushpin Label: | Camargo |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | United States |
Subdivision Type1: | State |
Subdivision Name1: | Mississippi |
Subdivision Type2: | County |
Subdivision Name2: | Monroe |
Elevation Ft: | 223 |
Coordinates: | 34.0709°N -88.6487°W |
Blank Name: | GNIS feature ID |
Blank Info: | 709319 |
Camargo is a ghost town in Monroe County, Mississippi, United States. Once a thriving river port, Camargo declined following the completion of a nearby railway.
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.[1] [2] 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.[1] [3] [4] [5] The Confederate States Army won a skirmish at Camargo on July 14, 1864.[4]
The Mobile and Ohio Railroad opened about 4miles 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.[6] [7] 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.[8] "Under the new conditions of competition the little river ports suffered heavily and tended to dry up", and Camargo was abandoned by the 1870s.[3] [7]