Natchez, Mississippi

Natchez, Mississippi
Sole incorporated city
City of Natchez
The historic Melrose estate at Natchez National Historical Park is an example of Antebellum Era Greek Revival architecture.
Nickname(s): The Bluff City, The Trace City, The River City, Antebellum Capital of the World, Historic Natchez on the Mississippi
Motto: "On the Mighty Mississippi"
Location of Natchez in Adams County
Natchez, Mississippi Show map of Mississippi Natchez, Mississippi Show map of the US Location in Mississippi
Coordinates: 31°33′16″N 91°23′15″W / 31.55444°N 91.38750°W / 31.55444; -91.38750Coordinates: 31°33′16″N 91°23′15″W / 31.55444°N 91.38750°W / 31.55444; -91.38750
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Adams
Founded	1716 as Fort Rosalie, renamed by 1730 Louisiana (New France)
Established	c. 1790 as the capital of the Natchez District Spanish West Florida
Incorporated	1800s
Government
• Mayor	Darryl Grennell
Area
• Total	35.9 km2 (13.9 sq mi)
• Land	34.2 km2 (13.2 sq mi)
• Water	1.7 km2 (0.7 sq mi)
Elevation	66 m (217 ft)
Population (2010)
• Total	15,792
• Density	462.1/km2 (1,197/sq mi)
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP codes	39120-39122
Area code(s)	601
FIPS code	28-50440
GNIS feature ID	0691586
Website	www.natchez.ms.us/1

Natchez is the county seat and only city of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 15,792 (as of the 2010 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, Natchez was a prominent city in the antebellum years, a center of cotton planters and Mississippi River trade.

It is some 90 miles (140 km) southwest of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, which is located near the center of the state. It is about 85 miles (137 km) north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, located on the lower Mississippi River. Natchez is the 25th-largest city in the state. The city was named for the Natchez tribe of Native Americans, who with their ancestors, inhabited much of the area from the 8th century AD through the French colonial period.

Established by French colonists in 1716, Natchez is one of the oldest and most important European settlements in the lower Mississippi River Valley. After the French lost the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War), they ceded Natchez and near territory to Spain in the Treaty of Paris of 1763. (It later traded other territory east of the Mississippi River with Great Britain, which expanded what it called West Florida).

After the United States acquired this area from the British after the American Revolutionary War, the city served as the capital of the American Mississippi Territory and then of the state of Mississippi. It predates Jackson by more than a century; the latter replaced Natchez as the capital in 1822, as it was more centrally located in the developing state. The strategic location of Natchez, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, ensured that it would be a pivotal center of trade, commerce, and the interchange of ethnic Native American, European, and African cultures in the region; it held this position for two centuries after its founding.