Woodruff County Courthouse, Cotton Plant

Cotton Plant owes its name to a seed. Settlers arrived around 1820 and called the place Richmond, but in 1846 William Lynch planted Mississippi cottonseed beside his store, the plant thrived, and neighbors began calling the community Cotton Plant. Because another Richmond already existed, the 1852 post office application used the new name. The Brinkley and Batesville narrow-gauge railroad arrived in 1881, and by 1920 the town had four cotton gins, a compress and several large warehouses. A district courthouse built here in 1902 served the county's southern end.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Louisiana Purchase State Park — 27 mi
  A National Historic Landmark in a headwater swamp where Phillips, Lee and Monroe counties meet, marking the initial point of every survey of the Louisiana Purchase lands.

More markers nearby

• Action at Cotton Plant — 0.3 mi
• Prairie County Courthouse — 14 mi
• The Memphis & Little Rock Railroad — 19 mi
• Memphis & Little Rock Railroad — 19 mi