Ellis Cliffs, Mississippi

Ellis Cliffs, Mississippi
Ghost town
A view of Ellis Cliffs in 1896
Ellis Cliffs, Mississippi Location within the state of Mississippi
Coordinates: 31°24′06″N 91°27′07″W
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Adams
Elevation	66 ft (20 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
GNIS feature ID	691838[1]

Ellis Cliffs is a ghost town in Adams County, Mississippi, United States.^[1]

Situated atop a high chalky bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, the white cliffs were frequently mentioned by early river voyagers.^[2]

The settlement was located approximately 14 mi (23 km) south of Natchez, and approximately 1 mi (1.6 km) northeast of Hutchins Landing.

History

The cliffs were known to early explorers and mapped under several names including the White Cliffs, Milk Cliffs, and Browne's Cliffs, after would-be colonizer Montfort Browne.^[3]: 652

The settlement is named for Richard Ellis, a native of Virginia who moved to the area with his family around 1785.^[2][4] Prior to Ellis, the Lieutenant Governor of West Florida, Montfort Browne, received a grant of land at this place and planned to locate the civil government at the site.^[5]

The Ellis family were one of the first to permanently settle in southwestern Mississippi, which was then still under Spanish rule.^[2]

Ellis established a plantation known as "White Cliffs", where "towering cliffs lined the east side of the river, providing a floodproof access to the water and vast acres of virgin land and timber".^{[6]: 8 [1][2]} The foundations of the family's first home were still visible in the early 1900s.^[6]

When Ellis died in 1792, he had accumulated 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) of land, and more than 150 slaves.^[2]

By 1800, both the settlement and the cliffs were known as "Ellis Cliffs".^[2]

British artist William Constable visited America between 1806–08 and painted View Down the Mississippi from Ellis's Cliffs, 28 Feby. 1807.^[7][8] Artist John Rowson Smith traveled the Mississippi River before the Civil War and painted The Cotton Region, which included a scene of "the house of a colored slave owner at Ellis Cliffs".^[9]: 87 Henry Lewis also painted the river, and described Ellis Cliffs as "strikingly bold, wild, and picturesque".^[9]: 87

During the Civil War, Confederate batteries were installed at the top of Ellis Cliffs.^[10]

The former settlement is today covered by forest, and bordered to the north by the St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge.

References

1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Ellis Cliffs
2. Bragg, Marion (1977). "Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi River" (PDF). Mississippi River Commission. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
3. Fabel, Robin F. A. (1993). "An Eighteenth Colony: Dreams for Mississippi on the Eve of the Revolution". The Journal of Southern History. 59 (4): 647–672. doi:10.2307/2210537. ISSN 0022-4642.
4. Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi. Goodspeed. 1891. pp. 473.
5. Great Britain. Historical Manuscripts Commission. Dartmouth, William Legge, Earl of, 1731-1801. (1972). The manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth. Vol. 2, American papers. Boston, Mass. : Gregg Press. Series: British accounts of the American Revolution. The American Revolutionary series. pp. 125-126, p. 212.
6. Miller, Mary Carol (2010). Lost Mansions of Mississippi. Vol. 2. University Press of Mississippi. p. 8. ISBN 9781604737875.
7. Black, Patti Carr (2007). The Mississippi Story. University Press of Mississippi. p. 43. ISBN 9781887422147.
8. "William Constable (1783-1861)". Spartacus Educational. April 9, 2004.
9. Black, Patti Carr (1998). Art in Mississippi, 1720-1980. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 87.
10. "Two Narrow Escapes on the Mississippi". Civil War Daily Gazette. Retrieved May 4, 2015.^{[permanent dead link‍]}