Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of a red-brick church with a domed white cupola, on a mown lawn with interpretive panels, woods behind and a gravel road at left

River and lake town

Rodney

Once a busy cotton port on the Mississippi, Rodney lost its river, its trade and finally its charter. A brick church with a cannonball set in its front wall, a few frame buildings and a hillside cemetery remain at the end of a flood-prone backroad.

31°51′41″N 91°11′59″W · ≈80 ft

Photo: Unmand, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Buildings private

The Rodney History and Preservation Society, which owns the Presbyterian church, says on its undated site (read October 2026) that the road into Rodney and the road through it are public, but that all structures in Rodney are private property. Look from the road and don't step onto the properties or into the buildings. About 10 people still live here, by a 2019 estimate and a May 2026 video visit. The town floods, and heavy rain can badly affect the dirt roads.

Overview

The port the river left

Petit Gulf, Rodney's old name, in a hand-colored lithograph after a drawing by Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, 1825–1837
Petit Gulf, Rodney's old name, in a hand-colored lithograph after a drawing by Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, 1825–1837 · Photo: Charles Alexandre Lesueur, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Rodney sits at the foot of the bluffs in western Jefferson County, about 32 miles northeast of Natchez. When the French claimed the spot in 1763 they called it Petit Gulf. The town took Judge Thomas Rodney's name in 1814 and was incorporated in 1828, and for the next three decades it was the shipping point for a wide belt of cotton country. Enslaved dockworkers loaded bales onto steamboats bound for New Orleans. In 1817 it missed becoming the state capital by three votes.

By 1860 Rodney had about 4,000 people, by the counts in Legends of America and Mississippi Folklife, with banks, newspapers, an opera house and more than 35 stores. In 1863 Confederate cavalry seized a Union gunboat's crew at church, and the gunboat shelled the town. A fire in 1869 burned most of the town, or most of its northern district by the preservation society's account. A sandbar pushed the Mississippi west, and the shipping channel turned to swamp; sources date the shift from the war years to 1870. In the 1880s the railroad went through Fayette instead, and in 1930 the governor took away the town's charter.

Floods have done the rest. Today the river is two to four miles off, depending on the source, and Rodney is a single road through the woods with two churches, a store, a lodge hall, a few houses and a hillside cemetery. About ten people lived here in 2019, by the preservation society president's estimate, and a visitor's video from May 2026 gives the same count. A preservation society bought the Presbyterian church in 2018 and has been rebuilding it.

Timeline

From Petit Gulf to the end of the charter

A store with a Gulf pump and Coca-Cola signs, July 1940
A store with a Gulf pump and Coca-Cola signs, July 1940 · Photo: Marion Post Walcott, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  1. The French claim the landing below Bayou Pierre and call it Petit Gulf, by Wikipedia's account.
  2. The town is renamed for Thomas Rodney, a territorial judge sent to Jefferson County in 1802.
  3. Rodney loses the vote to become the state capital by three votes. Wikipedia names Natchez as the winner; Legends of America says Washington.
  4. Rodney is incorporated. Legends of America and Mississippi Folklife put the population at about 200 in its early years.
  5. The red-brick Presbyterian church goes up. Mississippi Folklife dates its dedication to January 1, 1832.
  6. Yellow fever epidemics.
  7. About 4,000 people, according to Legends of America and Mississippi Folklife. The town has banks, newspapers, an opera house, a hotel and more than 35 stores, by Wikipedia's account.
  8. Confederate cavalry capture 17 men of the USS Rattler, her captain among them, at a Sunday service in the Presbyterian church. The gunboat shells the town.
  9. Fire destroys most of the town, or most of its northern district by the preservation society's account. The Presbyterian church survives.
  10. A sandbar sends the Mississippi west and Rodney loses its landing. Wikipedia dates the shift to the war years; Mississippi Folklife gives 1870.
  11. A railroad through Fayette takes the cotton trade away from the river.
  12. Governor Theodore Bilbo ends Rodney's status as an incorporated town.
  13. Marion Post Wolcott photographs Rodney for the Farm Security Administration.
  14. Sacred Heart Catholic Church, built about 1868, is moved to Grand Gulf Military State Park.
  15. Floods largely destroy the interior of Mount Zion Baptist Church. Locals told Mississippi Folklife the flood washed away most of the residents and buildings that were left.
  16. The Rodney Hotel is demolished in 2016, by the preservation society's account (a 2018 blog post says 2017), and Zion Chapel A.M.E. Church in 2017.
  17. The Rodney History and Preservation Society buys the Presbyterian church.
  18. About 10 people live in Rodney, by Angel Puckett's estimate in Mississippi Folklife, against 75 to 80 in 1980.
  19. Work starts on rebuilding the church's failing south wall (Natchez Democrat, December 2020).
  20. A visitor's video puts the population at about 10 and shows scaffolding on the church front.

September 13, 1863

Arrested at church

The cannonball set in the church front above the arched window, June 2016
The cannonball set in the church front above the arched window, June 2016 · Photo: Unmand, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Presbyterian church in March 1936, photographed for the Historic American Buildings Survey
The Presbyterian church in March 1936, photographed for the Historic American Buildings Survey · Photo: James Butters, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

In September 1863 the Union gunboat USS Rattler, a lightly armored river steamer, lay off Rodney's landing. On Sunday, September 13, part of her crew went ashore for the 11 a.m. service at the Presbyterian church, invited by the Reverend Baker, who was preaching that day. Accounts put the party at 17 to about 20 men. Confederate cavalry surrounded the church and captured 17 of them; the Navy's ship history lists the Rattler's commanding officer, Acting Master E. H. Fentress, and 16 crewmen.

When word reached the gunboat, she shelled the town. The shelling stopped when the Confederates threatened to hang their prisoners. Afterward Lieutenant Commander James A. Greer, aboard USS Benton near Natchez, rebuked the Rattler's captain and ordered the arrest of any officer found leaving his vessel to go ashore.

The cannonball in the church front is the part of the story most visitors know, and Mississippi Folklife calls the story part of the town's lore. Legends of America and Mississippi Folklife say the shells hit four houses and the church, and Wikipedia says one lodged above the balcony window. The ball in the wall now is not the one fired in 1863. The Natchez Democrat says a later restoration set it in the front bricks to commemorate the attack; Wikipedia and Mississippi Folklife call it a replica, and Legends of America says it is a period cannonball placed where the church was hit.

Confederate earthworks remain on the bluffs above town, by Wikipedia's account.

What's left

Two churches and a street of ruins

Mount Zion Baptist Church, April 2022
Mount Zion Baptist Church, April 2022 · Photo: Robert Jones, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Masonic lodge, April 2022
The Masonic lodge, April 2022 · Photo: Robert Jones, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Rodney Presbyterian Church is the oldest building left. It was built of red brick between 1829 and 1832 in the Federal style, with fanlights and a gallery for enslaved worshippers, and it has been on the National Register since February 6, 1973. The United Daughters of the Confederacy held it from 1966. In November 2018 the Rodney History and Preservation Society bought it, finished emergency structural work in January 2019 and started rebuilding the collapsing south wall in 2020. Its site now lists the south wall and the bell tower supports as done, with windows, steps and brick repointing still to do. Scaffolding was still up on the front in a May 2026 video.

Along the road stand Mount Zion Baptist Church, a white frame church with a silver dome that Legends of America dates to 1850 and Wikipedia to 1851; the empty Alston's store; and the Masonic lodge, built about 1890. Floods in 2011 largely wrecked Mount Zion's interior. The town cemetery, about three acres on the hill behind the Presbyterian church, holds at least 200 graves going back to 1828, by Mississippi Folklife's count. The Catholic church was moved to Grand Gulf Military State Park in 1983. The preservation society's site records the Rodney Hotel as demolished in 2016 (a 2018 blog post says 2017) and Zion Chapel A.M.E. Church in 2017. The town's center was listed on the National Register as the Rodney Center Historic District in 1980.

The 1939 USGS sheet in the historic maps below labels Rodney's school, the Catholic church and two Mount Zion churches, with old river meander lines of 1830 and 1827–98 drawn across the bottomland to the west. By 1958 the sheet shows Bush Lake and Flatland Lake in the old river bottom to the west, and the Claiborne County line just north of town.

  • Rodney Presbyterian Church (1829–1832)
  • Mount Zion Baptist Church (1850 or 1851)
  • Alston's store
  • Masonic lodge (about 1890)
  • Town cemetery on the hill
  • A few houses, at least one on raised pilings
  • Confederate earthworks on the bluffs
USGS topographic map of Rodney: Commerce Street running north to south below wooded bluffs, Rodney Road coming in from the east, lakes and marsh to the west
USGS The National Map, topo. Commerce Street runs along the foot of the bluffs, with Rodney Road coming in from the east. Mammy Judy Bayou and the county line cross the top; lakes and marsh fill the old river bottom to the west.
Aerial view of Rodney: a road running north to south through woods with a few roofs along it and a side road to the east
Aerial imagery, same area. A few roofs line the road through the woods, and a field opens at the bottom of the frame.

Historic maps

Rodney on USGS maps, 1939–1991

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Rodney, 1939
Lorman sheet, 1939, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Port Gibson is the closest town with services. From Jackson, take I-20 west and US 61 south through Port Gibson. Both routes leave US 61 for MS 552, cut through the Alcorn State University campus on Alcorn Avenue and Rodney Drive, and finish on Alcorn Road and Rodney Road. The routes were computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us; read the road notes below before you follow the campus leg.

USGS topographic map between Port Gibson and Rodney, with the Mississippi River at upper left and the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Port Gibson21.5 miabout 43 min
  1. From Walnut Street in Port Gibson, turn onto Church Street (US 61) and follow US 61 south.9.6 mi
  2. Take the ramp and bear right onto MS 552.7.2 mi
  3. Turn left, then right, then left onto Alcorn Avenue.0.5 mi
  4. Turn right on Rodney Drive, which becomes Alcorn Road.2.3 mi
  5. At the end of the road, turn right on Rodney Road into town.1.9 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The routed directions above go through the Alcorn State University campus and out on Rodney Drive and Alcorn Road. A photographer's blog (first posted 2019) warns that GPS sends drivers through the campus and out a little-used back gate onto a narrow dirt road, where she turned back. It recommends taking MS 552 west and staying on Rodney Road instead: if you reach the campus, you've gone too far. We haven't driven either way.
  • Sources disagree on how much of the road is unpaved. Legends of America says the final three miles are dirt and gravel. Mississippi Folklife (2019) describes twelve slow miles of alternating blacktop and dirt on the back road from the Old Country Store at Lorman, and the photographer's blog says the pavement on Rodney Road turns to dirt shortly after the Alcorn Road junction. Expect dirt near town whichever way you come.
  • A history blogger who visited (first posted December 2018) says most cars make it, but the road gets muddy and always has potholes, and recommends an SUV or truck. Heavy rain can badly affect the roads, and floodwater can reach the church steps. Don't drive into water on the road.
  • Cell signal can be spotty, and there are no restrooms or services for a long way, by the same account. Bring water, and download an offline map before you leave US 61.
  • The same blogger warns of copperheads and cottonmouths on the bluffs in warm months. Stay out of tall grass.
  • All structures in Rodney are private property, by the preservation society's account. Stay on the road, and respect the residents.

Photos

Rodney in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Rodney?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Rodney

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Mississippi index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Rodney": fact sheet fields (roads, climate, best time, remains).
  2. Wikipedia, "Rodney, Mississippi", retrieved October 2026: Petit Gulf and the 1763 claim, the renaming, the capital vote, the river trade, the Rattler raid, the fire, the river shift, the 1930 disincorporation, the buildings and their dates, earthworks, flooding, coordinates (GNIS).
  3. Wikipedia, "Rodney Presbyterian Church", retrieved October 2026: construction 1829–1832 and the National Register listing of February 6, 1973.
  4. Legends of America, "Rodney, Mississippi", updated March 2026: population figures, the capital vote, the 1863 raid and the shells that hit the church and four homes, the period cannonball, the 1930 proclamation, the UDC ownership, Mount Zion's 2011 flood damage, the historic district, the final three miles of road.
  5. Mississippi Folklife, "Haunted by a Ghost Town: The Lure of Rodney, Mississippi", Harriet Riley, August 11, 2019: population from about 200 to 4,000, the 1832 dedication, yellow fever, the Rattler story as town lore and its replica cannonball, the 1870 river shift, residents in 1980 and 2019, the road from Lorman, the cemetery, the 2011 flood, the society's founding.
  6. Rodney History and Preservation Society, read October 2026 (undated pages; the road and property notice has been on the home page since at least 2023): the home page (public roads, restoration work done and to do), "History of Rodney" (all structures private property, the 1869 fire in the northern district, the 1880s railroad, emergency work in January 2019), "Rodney Presbyterian" (ownership and the November 1, 2018 purchase, the 1832 dedication), "History Lost in Rodney" (hotel demolished 2016) and "Zion Chapel Lost 2017".
  7. Natchez Democrat, "Rodney Presbyterian Church undergoing repairs", December 2020: the November 2018 purchase, the south wall work, the cannonball set in the front bricks by a later restoration.
  8. Brent Underwood, "The Mississippi River Abandoned This Town", Ghost Town Two (YouTube), May 25, 2026: a visit finding about 10 residents, some buildings lived in, and scaffolding on the Presbyterian church.
  9. The Forgotten South, "Ghosts of the Mississippi: The Forgotten Town of Rodney", Kelly, first posted December 29, 2018 (updated 2026): private property and viewing from the road, road condition, cell signal, snakes, no services, flood heights, the hotel's demolition in 2017.
  10. Susan Tregoning Photography, "Rodney Ghost Town", first posted June 2019: the GPS route through the Alcorn campus and its back gate, the recommended way in on MS 552 and Rodney Road, where the pavement ends.
  11. Wikipedia, "USS Rattler", drawing on the Navy's Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, retrieved October 2026: the commanding officer and 16 crewmen captured at church on September 13, 1863.
  12. Library of Congress photographs by Marion Post Wolcott (1940) and the Historic American Buildings Survey (1936), via Wikimedia Commons (in the photos).
  13. USGS Lorman sheet, 1939, St. Joseph sheet, 1958, Rodney sheet, 1986, and Natchez sheet, 1991 (in the historic maps below): the school, churches, old river lines, lakes and county line.
  14. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits