Pemiscot County | |
|---|---|
 Pemiscot County Courthouse in Caruthersville | |
 Location within the U.S. state of Missouri | |
 Missouri's location within the U.S. | |
| Coordinates: 36°13′N 89°47′W / 36.21°N 89.78°W | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Missouri |
| Founded | February 19, 1851 |
| Named for | Fox word meaning "liquid mud" |
| Seat | Caruthersville |
| Largest city | Caruthersville |
| Area | |
| • Total | 513 sq mi (1,330 km2) |
| • Land | 493 sq mi (1,280 km2) |
| • Water | 21 sq mi (50 km2) 4.1% |
| Population (2020) | |
| • Total | 15,661 |
| • Density | 31/sq mi (12/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC−6 (Central) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−5 (CDT) |
| Congressional district | 8th |
| Website | www |
Pemiscot County is a county located in the southeastern corner in the Bootheel in the U.S. state of Missouri, with the Mississippi River forming its eastern border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,661. The largest city and county seat is Caruthersville.[1] The county was officially organized on February 19, 1851.[2] It is named for the local bayou, taken from the word pem-eskaw, meaning "liquid mud", in the language of the native Meskwaki people.[3] This has been an area of cotton plantations and later other commodity crops.
Murphy Mound Archeological Site has one of the largest platform mounds in Missouri. It is a major earthwork of the Late Mississippian culture, which had settlement sites throughout the Mississippi Valley and tributaries. The site is privately owned and is not open to the public. The site may have been occupied from as early as 1200 CE and continuing to about 1541.[4]
- ^ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
- ^ Douglass, Robert Sidney (1912). History of Southeast Missouri. Vol. I. Chicago and New York: Lewis Publishing. p. 313. ISBN 9780722207536.
- ^ Eaton, David Wolfe (1917). How Missouri Counties, Towns and Streams Were Named. The State Historical Society of Missouri. pp. 338.
- ^ O'Brien, Michael J. and Robert C. Dunnell. (1998) 1998 Changing Perspectives on the Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley. University of Missouri Press, Columbia