History of DeSoto County

At its organization on February 9, 1836, DeSoto County stretched from the Tennessee state line on the north to the Panola County line on the south; from the Mississippi River and Tunica County on the west to Marshall County on the east. A mistake in surveying placed the state line at what is now Winchester Road in Shelby County, Tennessee. In 1838, the line was resurveyed and moved to its present location.

Indian artifacts collected in DeSoto County link it with prehistoric groups of Woodland and Mississippian Indians.

The Mississippian Indians met Hernando DeSoto when he explored North Mississippi and, traditionally, came through DeSoto County. Some scholars project that DeSoto discovered the Mississippi River west of present-day Lake Cormorant, built rafts there and crossed to Crowley's Ridge, Arkansas. The National Park Service declared a "DeSoto Corridor" from the Chickasaw Bluff (Memphis) to Coahoma County, Mississippi.

Over 200 years passed and the Mississippian Indian culture disappeared, devastated by disease, but the Indian town named Chicasa which De Soto visited was probably the ancestral home of the Chickasaws who still lived in the area when Anglo-Americans began showing up. Their "Long Town," several villages close to each other, was near present-day Pontotoc. The Chickasaws claimed much of western Tennessee and northern Mississippi as their hunting grounds.

Negotiations, begun September, 1816, between the United States government and the Chickasaw nation, concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Pontotoc in October 1832. During these 16 years government officials and Chickasaw tribesmen worked out and revised treaty details.

From 1832 to 1836, government surveyors mapped the 6,442,000 acres (26,070 km²) of the Chickasaw domain, dividing it into townships, ranges and sections just as it remains today. The Mississippi Legislature formed 10 new counties, including DeSoto, Tunica, Marshall and Panola Counties, from this land.

By treaty the land was assigned by sections of 640 acres (2.6 km²) to individual Indians. The Chickasaws, a numerically small tribe, were assigned 2,422,400 acres (9,803 km²) of land using this formula. The government disposed of the remaining 400,000 at public sale. The Indians received at least $1.25 per acre for their land. The government land sold for 75 cents per acre or less.