Aside from the church, only the gravestones still stand, reminders of residents that lived during the hight of Rocky Springs. Regular services ended in 2010, though community members do gather on special occasions. Only the church&emdash originally erection in 1837-remains. In confirmation that this was the final curtain for the town’s rocky history, the springs dried up. If one were looking for some cosmic sign, this one would be a neon “Do Not Enter.” Years of irresponsible land management also meant that the land was literally falling away beneath the residents feet through erosion. As if hungry troops and looters weren’t enough, yellow fever ravaged the community in 1878, while boll weevils ravaged the crops shortly after.
Yet, the growing community took a sharp turn with the Civil War.
Census takers of the day were not so particular. Historians approximate an additional population of 2,000 slaves. By 1860, the community had reached a population of 2,616 inhabitants. Cotton farming became the main economic driver. The natural spring provided a valuable watering hole and a natural name for the community that grew around it in the late 1700s. Like many sites along the Natchez Trace, Rocky Springs found its origin as a stop for travelers. One of many gravestones from that era in the Rocky Springs graveyard. Powers marks a life span between Jto July 21, 1853.
With little sense of our surroundings, we backed Dodgy into a camp site and nestled in the truck bed to sleep. A heavy mist lounged around the nearly deserted campground with the same disdainful lethargy of a bored high schooler and an equal interest in obstructing our progress. I giggled, “that’s our next stop!”Īfter dinner at a Jackson BBQ joint trimmed in barbed wire and serenaded by the howling train tracks next door, we rolled into Rocky Springs long after sunset. But one caller caught the host’s attention when they described the haunting remains of Rocky Springs Ghost Town. But for this rare excursion onto regional airwaves, we came across a Jackson station where the radio host was shoveling the burden of content creation onto his listeners: asking them to call in with their favorite places to visit near Jackson.
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