Shellmound is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located in

Leflore County Leflore County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,339. The county seat is Greenwood. The county is named for Choctaw leader Greenwood LeFlore, who signed a treaty to cede his pe ...

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, United States, located approximately north of Greenwood and approximately southeast of Schlater near U.S. Highway 49E. It is part of the

Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area The Greenwood Micropolitan Statistical Area is a micropolitan area in the northwestern Delta region of Mississippi that covers two counties - Leflore and Carroll. As of the 2000 census, the USA had a population of 48,716 (though a July 1, 200 ...

History

Shellmound is named for a nearby

mound A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded ...

that had a large amount of shells on the surface. The area was possibly the site of a battle between the

Chakchiuma The Chakchiuma were a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe of the upper Yazoo River region of what is today the state of Mississippi. In the late 17th century, French explorers identified the Chakchiuma as "a Chickasaw, ...

and allied

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

and

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...

. Shellmound was founded as a

landing Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or " spl ...

on the

Tallahatchie River The Tallahatchie River is a river in Mississippi which flows from Tippah County, through Tallahatchie County, to Leflore County, where it joins the Yalobusha River to form the Yazoo River, which ultimately meets the Mississippi River at Vic ...

and was one of the earliest settlements on the Tallahatchie. The community served as a distribution point for the area between the river and

McNutt McNutt is a surname of either Scottish or Irish origin. It refers to: ;Persons *Alexander McNutt (colonist), Alexander McNutt (1725–1811), British army officer, colonist, and land agent *Alexander McNutt (governor), Alexander McNutt (1802–1848) ...

. In the late 1800s, Shellmound had four general stores, a doctor, and a population of 150. A post office operated under the name Shellmound from 1854 to 1921.

Music

Shellmound is home to one of Leflore County's seven

Mississippi Blues Trail The Mississippi Blues Trail was created by the Mississippi Blues Commission in 2006 to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the birth, growth, and influence of the blues throughout (and in some cases beyond) t ...

markers (at Racetrack Plantation).

Gallery

File:OFBledsoeBuilding.jpg, O.F. Bledsoe Building located in the community File:GuitarSlimMississippiBluesTrailMarker.jpg, Guitar Slim

marker

References

Unincorporated communities in Leflore County, Mississippi Unincorporated communities in Mississippi Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area {{LefloreCountyMS-geo-stub