Editing Yazoo City, Mississippi (section)

==History==
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| image1= Confederate Memorial in Yazoo City, Mississippi.jpg
| caption1 = Confederate Monument
| image2= Young band boy, and overseer. Yazoo City, Miss. - NARA - 523426.jpg
| caption2 = Child Labor in Yazoo City, 1911, photo by [[Lewis Hine]]
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The community now known as Yazoo City was founded in 1824 with the name Hannan's Bluff. It was later renamed Manchester, then changed to Yazoo City in 1841. Yazoo City became the county seat in 1849. A [[yellow fever]] epidemic struck Yazoo City in 1853.

During the [[American Civil War]], the Confederate ironclad [[CSS Arkansas|CSS ''Arkansas'']] was completed at a makeshift shipyard in Yazoo City after the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] loss of [[New Orleans]] and [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]]. During her short career, the ''Arkansas'' challenged the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] navy's control of the [[Mississippi River]] and helped avert the early fall of [[Vicksburg, Mississippi|Vicksburg]]. On May&nbsp;21, 1863, as a Union fleet steamed up the Yazoo River, the Confederate forces burned down the shipyard to keep their foes from capturing the vessels being built there. The Federal forces then burned down the sawmill and lumberyard before withdrawing. After their [[Siege of Vicksburg|capture of Vicksburg]] in July 1863, another Union raid briefly occupied Yazoo City, but this time the Union ironclad [[USS Baron DeKalb|USS ''Baron DeKalb'']] was sunk by a mine. Federal troops occupied the town in September and again in October 1863. Another occupation resulted in the [[Battle of Yazoo City]] on March&nbsp;5, 1864 between the Union troops and Confederates led by [[Robert V. Richardson]] and [[Lawrence Sullivan Ross]]. The Union troops held their ground but departed the following day. The Federal forces returned again on May&nbsp;19, 1864, doing more damage to the town.<ref>{{cite web|title=Visit Yazoo: Civil War Comes to Yazoo 1862 – 1864 |publisher=Yazoo County Convention & Visitors Bureau |year=2013 |access-date=November 13, 2020 |url=http://visityazoo.org/civil-war-comes-to-yazoo/ }}</ref>

Yazoo City was rebuilt, but yellow fever struck and took more victims in 1878. On May&nbsp;25, 1904, a fire destroyed much of central Yazoo City.<ref name=Tac>[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085187/1904-05-25/ed-1/seq-3/ FLAMES SWEPT OVER THE CITY] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009224212/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085187/1904-05-25/ed-1/seq-3/ |date=2016-10-09 }}, in ''[[The Tacoma Times]]'' (via Publishing America); published May 25, 1904; retrieved August 11,2016</ref> According to a local legend, the fire was caused by a witch avenging her death.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yazoo.org/Wtchgrav.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000520143054/http://www.yazoo.org/Wtchgrav.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 May 2000|title=Wtchgrav|date=20 May 2000|access-date=28 November 2018}}</ref> In reality, a boy playing with matches accidentally set a house ablaze. The fire quickly spread, and three-fourths of the town was destroyed, including most of the homes. It was stopped by a canal, which saved the new courthouse (built in 1872 to replace the one burned by the Union forces) and 10 [[antebellum architecture|antebellum]] homes nearby. The town took almost two years to recover.

In 1915, the Orr Modern Motor Car Company was founded in Yazoo City by G.A. Wilson and C.D. Orr, with capital of $2,000,000 ({{Inflation|US|2000000|1915|fmt=eq}}). Despite its name, the company was focused just on making Orr's innovative worm drive and assembled only one automobile as a prototype. Not long after, Orr shut its doors.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Kimes, Beverly R.|author=Clark, Henry A. |title=The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805–1945 |year=1985 |publisher=Krause Publications |isbn=0-87341-045-9 |pages=1050}}</ref>

The [[Great Mississippi Flood of 1927]] did much damage to the entire Delta, but Yazoo City was restored and is now protected by an effective flood-prevention system.

===Tornado History===
{{See also|2010 Yazoo City tornado|Tornadoes of 2010#November 29–30|Tornado outbreak of May 2–3, 2021}}
A strong tornado, rated&nbsp;EF4 on the [[Enhanced Fujita scale]] and with a path width of {{convert|1.75|mi|abbr=on}}, hit Yazoo County on April&nbsp;24, 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jan/?n=2010_04_24_tor_overview |title=NWS Jackson, MS – April 23–24, 2010 Severe Weather Outbreak |website=Srh.noaa.gov |date=2010-04-28 |access-date=2014-05-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012002419/http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jan/?n=2010_04_24_tor_overview |archive-date=2014-10-12 |url-status=live }}</ref> Four people were killed in the Yazoo City area, and a number were seriously injured; four of the victims were airlifted to the [[University of Mississippi Medical Center]] in the capital city of Jackson, {{convert|40|mi|abbr=on}} away. The Governor of Mississippi, [[Haley Barbour]], toured the area in a National Guard helicopter and held a news conference on the disaster at 3:30&nbsp;pm.<ref name="wapt.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.wapt.com/weather/23254518/detail.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305084210/http://www.wapt.com/weather/23254518/detail.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 March 2012|title=Tornado Cuts Across Mississippi Killing 10 – Jackson Weather News Story – WAPT Jackson|date=5 March 2012|access-date=12 January 2018}}</ref> The tornado and the aftermath were shown in an episode of the [[Discovery Channel]] series ''[[Storm Chasers (TV series)|Storm Chasers]]'', and several [[YouTube]] videos show considerable detail and descriptions.

On November&nbsp;29, 2010 around 8:05&nbsp;pm local time, Yazoo City was struck by two EF2&nbsp;tornadoes: the first one tracked {{convert|3|mi|abbr=on}} southwest of town. The second went right through downtown causing significant damage to several buildings.

A high-end EF1&nbsp;tornado passed through the southeast side of the city on May&nbsp;2, 2021. Multiple mobile homes were destroyed and trees, power lines, and homes were damaged.