page_title: Columbus, Mississippi
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Columbus, Mississippi / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Postcard of steamer American on Tombigbee River at Columbus, Mississippi
context_page_description: Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, on the eastern border of Mississippi, United States, located primarily east, but also north and northeast of the Tombigbee River, which is also referred to as the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. It is approximately 146 miles northeast of Jackson, 92 miles north of Meridian, 63 miles south of Tupelo, 60 miles northwest of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and 120 miles west of Birmingham, Alabama.
  The population was 25,944 at the 2000 census and 23,640 in 2010. The population in 2019 was estimated to be 23,573. Columbus is the principal city of the Columbus Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the larger Columbus-West Point Combined Statistical Area. Columbus is also part of the area of Mississippi called The Golden Triangle, consisting of Columbus, West Point and Starkville, in the counties of Lowndes, Clay and Oktibbeha.
context_section_description: The first record of the site of Columbus in Western history is found in the annals of the explorer Hernando de Soto, who is reputed to have crossed the nearby Tombigbee River on his search for El Dorado. However, the site does not enter the main continuity of United States history until December 1810, when John Pitchlynn, the U.S. Indian agent and interpreter for the Choctaw Nation, moved to Plymouth Bluff, where he built a home, established a farm, and transacted Choctaw Agency business.
  After the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson recognized the urgent need for roads to connect New Orleans to the rest of the country. In 1817 Jackson ordered a road be built to provide a direct route from Nashville to New Orleans. His surveyor, Captain Hugh Young, chose a place on the Tombigbee River where high ground approached the river on both sides as the location for a ferry to be used for crossing the river when high water prevented fording the river. A military bridge was constructed where the present-day Tombigbee Bridge was later developed in Columbus, Mississippi. Jacksons' Military Road opened the way for development in the area.
caption: Postcard of steamer American on Tombigbee River at Columbus, c. 1890-1920
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