Okolona

History

Okolona was named as Rose Hill in 1845 early in its settlement, but residents later discovered that another location had this name. When a US post office was established here in 1850, a new name was needed to avoid confusion in mail delivery. According to the Okolona Area Chamber of Commerce, Colonel Josiah N. Walton, postmaster of nearby Aberdeen, Mississippi, remembered an encounter with a Chickasaw warrior years earlier. The man's name was Oka-laua, meaning peaceful, yellow, or blue water. Walton renamed Rose Hill as Okolona in his honor. According to another account, Okalona is a Native American placename, possible from the Choctaw, meaning "people gathered together." Due to the destruction brought to the area by the Civil War, few structures from the antebellum period remain. The Elliott-Donaldson House, constructed in 1850, survives and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. A few other homes have also survived. In the mid nineteenth century, Okolona and the surrounding Black Prairie, sometimes called the Black Belt or Prairie Belt, became what has been called the "Bread Basket of the Confederacy". The area was part of the original Cotton Belt of Mississippi well before the more famous Delta region gained fame for major cotton production. The Mobile and Ohio Railroad completed its tracks though Okolona in 1859, making the town a center for the ginning of cotton and its shipment to markets. The town grew along Main Street as a result of the railroad. Most commercial buildings from this period, including the depot, were burned during the Civil War. Five skirmishes or battles between Union and Confederate forces occurred in and around Okolona. The eponymous Battle of Okolona occurred in February 1864. In a running cavalry clash between…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.23%, is water. As highways were built, they passed through the city, connecting it with other towns. This is the location of the junction of former U.S. Route 45 Alternate (Church Street) and Mississippi Highway 32 (Monroe Avenue). US-45A now bypasses the town to the east as a four-lane divided highway.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• OKOLONA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
  Elementary · OKOLONA · 229 students · 12.7:1 ratio
• OKOLONA HIGH SCHOOL
  High · OKOLONA · 158 students · 11.3:1 ratio
• OKOLONA MIDDLE SCHOOL
  Middle · OKOLONA · 124 students · 8.9:1 ratio
• OKOLONA VOC COMPLEX
  High · OKOLONA