Commerce, Mississippi
| Commerce, Mississippi | |
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| Ghost Town | |
Looking west from Commerce
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 Commerce, Mississippi
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| Coordinates: 34°49′10″N 90°22′49″W / 34.81944°N 90.38028°WCoordinates: 34°49′10″N 90°22′49″W / 34.81944°N 90.38028°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Mississippi |
| County | Tunica |
| Elevation | 200 ft (61 m) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| GNIS feature ID | 668724 |
Commerce is a ghost town in Tunica County, Mississippi. Commerce Landing was the town's port.
Commerce is located on the Mississippi River, 4 mi (6.4 km) west of Tunica Resorts.
Once a thriving river port, Commerce today is farmland surrounded by large casinos. Little remains of the original community.
Commerce Landing is one of two hypothesized locations where Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto may have crossed the Mississippi River (the other is Friars Point, Mississippi). Archeological sites at Commerce have dated to around 1541, and three archeological sites near Commerce have been found to contain Late Mississippian ceramics, which corresponds to records left by the Spanish describing three Quizquiz Indian villages they encountered near the Mississippi River.
During the 1820s, both Commerce and Mound City, Arkansas were considered commercial rivals of Memphis, Tennessee, and by 1839, Commerce had a larger population than Memphis (located 40 mi (64 km) north on the Mississippi River).
Thomas Fletcher, an early settler, along with an unknown Choctaw Indian, named the place "Commerce", expecting it to become a great city. Commerce was founded in 1834, and became the county seat in 1836. It incorporated in 1839, and was the first town in Tunica County.
There is a story about artist John Banvard stopping at Commerce as he traveled the Mississippi River with a floating exhibition of his paintings during the 1840s. When a local "official" in Commerce attempted to extort a docking fee, Banvard's crew floated downstream with the man still on board.
They set him ashore in a thick cane-break, on the opposite side of the river, about three miles below the town. How he got home that night is best known to himself. We venture to say he never meddled with business that did not concern him after passing that night among the musquitoes and alligators.
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Wikipedia