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CHistory
History · Rolling Fork

Rolling Fork’s post office opened in 1876, and 2 of its places are on the National Register

More historic than 27% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Most of Rolling Fork was built recently: 0.9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1977. Its Register listings are the Rolling Fork Mounds and the Dr. Early Colman and Ann Foote Clements House. Its Register listings are the Rolling Fork Mounds and the Dr. Early Colman and Ann Foote Clements House. Below: 8 old photos and papers, maps from 1915 on, and the census since 1880.

1876first post office
2on the National Register
0.9%homes built before 1940
8old photos & papers
10famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Rolling Fork’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Rolling Fork began

When was Rolling Fork founded?

1876

The Rolling Fork post office opened in 1876, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 91 in 18802020 census: 1,883150 years

How historic is Rolling Fork?

C

More historic than 27% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Rolling Fork post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Rolling Fork’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Rolling Fork is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Rolling Fork’s overall grade.
Founding era1876, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19400.9% of homes (±1.2) · typical MS town 4.5% · U.S. 8.4%DNational Register2 listings, 9.8 per 10,000 residents · typical MS town 71.9 · U.S. 2.4B
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 27%
NewerOlder

Mississippi towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Mississippi town has 71.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Rolling Fork’s 9.8 sits near the middle of its state (54% of Mississippi towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C+. The pre-1940 share (±1.2 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Rolling Fork’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Boom and bustPeaked at 2,590 in 1980; 1,883 people lived here in 2020.Famous sons and daughtersMuddy Waters, Slick Watts and 8 more were born here.
★ What stands out · People over time

Rolling Fork, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,50018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 2,590

Peaked at 2,590 in 1980; 1,883 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Rolling Fork’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

10 famous people were born in Rolling Fork

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Muddy WatersAmerican blues musician · b. 1913
Slick WattsAmerican basketball player · b. 1951
Fielding L. WrightAmerican politician · b. 1895
Larry SmithAmerican basketball player and coach · b. 1958
W
Willie Mae Ford SmithAmerican singer · b. 1904
J
Johnny DyerAmerican electric blues harmonicist and singer · b. 1938
The story

How Rolling Fork came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Rolling Fork.

Read it all →

Thomas Y. Chaney settled here in 1828, and was the first European-American settler in the area. The Choctaw, longtime indigenous occupants, had been forced out by new settler pressure and government treaties to gain their land.

Deer Creek flows through the settlement. Chaney called the place "Rolling Fork" because of the swiftness of the water at a fork in the creek there. A post office was established in 1848.

When Sharkey County was established in 1876, during the Reconstruction era, Rolling Fork was made the county seat. A newspaper, The Deer Creek Pilot, was established in 1884.

Chapters2023 tornado

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Rolling Fork, 1863 to 1980

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1863In the archiveRolling Fork Mounds
  3. 1876Post officeThe Rolling Fork post office opens
  4. 1895Born hereFielding L. Wright is born here
  5. 20th century
  6. 1913Born hereMuddy Waters is born here
  7. 1927In the archiveFloods - Mississippi River Flood
  8. 1939On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  9. 1940In the archiveTenant houses on cotton plantation. Rolling Fork, Mississippi
  10. 1951Born hereSlick Watts is born here
  11. 1958Born hereLarry Smith is born here
  12. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 2,590
By decade

Rolling Fork, decade by decade

3 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1860s1 item
Rolling Fork Mounds1863Rolling Fork Mounds
1920s–1940s7 items
Floods - Mississippi River Flood1927Floods - Mississippi River FloodTenant houses on cotton plantation. Rolling Fork, Mississippi1940Tenant houses on cotton plantation. Rolling Fork, Mis…Tenant houses on cotton plantation. Rolling Fork, Mississippi1940Tenant houses on cotton plantation. Rolling Fork, Mis…Untitled photo, possibly related to: Tenant houses on cotton plantation. Rolling Fork, Mississippi1940Untitled photo, possibly related to: Tenant houses on…Untitled photo, possibly related to: Tenant houses on cotton plantation. Rolling Fork, Mississippi1940Untitled photo, possibly related to: Tenant houses on…Rows of cotton that is just coming up around tenant houses. Mississippi Delta1940Rows of cotton that is just coming up around tenant h…Untitled photo, possibly related to: Rows of cotton that is just coming up around tenant houses. Mississippi Delta1940Untitled photo, possibly related to: Rows of cotton t…
1950s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today4 recent
Sam Sing Grocery2010Sam Sing GroceryCotton Gin in Mississippi2010Cotton Gin in MississippiWelcome to2008Welcome toSharkey County Mississippi Courthouse2007Sharkey County Mississippi Courthouse
On the map

Rolling Fork on the map, 1939 to 1988

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Rolling Fork. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Rolling Fork on the 1939 USGS mapRolling Fork on the 1964 USGS mapRolling Fork on the 1988 USGS map1939Lorenzen sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Rolling Fork.

Every building

Rolling Fork, building by building, 1915

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Rolling Fork fire insurance map, 1915, sheet 11915Sheet 1 of 2
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Rolling Fork Mounds
Retake this viewRolling Fork Mounds, 1863

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Rolling Fork’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

2 historic places in Rolling Fork

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
1974
Rolling Fork Mounds
Rolling Fork Mounds
BuildingsSites
All 2 listings
Rolling Fork MoundsSite · listed 1974Dr. Early Colman and Ann Foote Clements HouseBuilding · listed 2026

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Places now gone

Rolling Fork’s post office has been open since 1876.

Gone or out of use
Henry Weathers Schoolschool

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Rolling Fork’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewRolling Fork Mounds: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Rolling Fork’s history

What year was Rolling Fork founded?

The Rolling Fork post office opened in 1876, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Rolling Fork rank for history?

Rolling Fork is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

What is on the National Register in Rolling Fork?

Two places: the Rolling Fork Mounds (listed 1974) and the Dr. Early Colman and Ann Foote Clements House (2026).

How old are the homes in Rolling Fork?

0.9% of Rolling Fork’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 4.5% for a Mississippi town; the median home was built in 1977.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the Library of Congress (6), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.