Columbus

History

Columbus is the oldest town in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase. It was first settled on the Mississippi floodplain in 1804 and known as "Iron Banks" after the site's French name les rivages de fer. The long-held local rumor that President Thomas Jefferson planned to remove the American capital to the site has absolutely no basis in fact. In 1861, after the American Civil War broke out, the town was seized by Confederate forces (including the Louisiana "Shreveport Rebels". They fortified the site overlooking the Mississippi River, building Fort de Russey.) Confederate general Leonidas Polk tried to run and maintain a large anchor chain across the entire Mississippi at Columbus in order to block Union traffic downriver. Columbus was also the northernmost spur on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The Union responded by General Ulysses S. Grant's engaging the Confederates at Belmont on the Missouri shore. This was Grant's first direct combat during the war. These actions are today commemorated at the Columbus-Belmont State Park on the bluff near Columbus. In 1878, the American railroad legend Casey Jones got his first railroad job here, working as a telegrapher for the Mobile and Ohio at the age of 15. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 deluged the town, as well as many areas downriver in the Mississippi Delta, where hundreds of thousands of acres were flooded. Survivors moved the town of Columbus, rebuilding it upon higher ground above the flood plain. Some of the original houses were saved and moved inland. Given its isolated location in a rural area and the decline in river traffic, the town has lost population for years.

Geography

Columbus is located in northwestern Hickman County at (36.760176, -89.102840), on high ground east of the Mississippi River. It is bordered to the west by Columbus-Belmont State Park, which occupies a bluff rising nearly above the river. Kentucky Route 58 leads southeast from Columbus to Clinton, the county seat. Kentucky Route 123 passes through the center of town, leading south then east to Clinton and north-northeast to Bardwell. Via Kentucky Route 80 it is east-northeast to Arlington. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  409
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  360
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  321
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  290
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  255
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  254
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  243
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  205

Largest nearby schools

• Hickman County Elementary School
  Elementary · Clinton · 421 students · 13.2:1 ratio
• Hickman County High School
  High · Clinton · 302 students · 12.6:1 ratio