Walnut Grove, Mississippi
Walnut Grove is a town in Leake County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 510 at the 2020 census, a sharp decrease from 1,911 at the 2010 census, due to the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility being closed by the state in September 2016 because of repeated problems at the troubled facility. It had been privately owned and operated since 2001 under a contract with the state Department of Corrections. By 2011 it was the largest juvenile facility in the nation. Golden Memorial State Park is located east of the town. History Walnut Grove began as a European-American settlement in a nearby location, now referred to as "Old Walnut Grove". This area was developed as cotton plantations in the antebellum era. The town was incorporated in 1884. A post office was established in 1854, and in the early 1900s, electricity and street lights were installed. The Jackson and Eastern Railway was completed from Union, Mississippi to Walnut Grove in 1923, and then extended to nearby Tuscola, Mississippi in 1925. The town was surveyed at its present location in 1923. Two canals were built near Walnut Grove in the late 1920s to improve transportation. Walnut Grove received a telephone franchise in