Starkville

Starkville, Mississippi
—  City  —
Nickname(s): Starkvegas
Location of Starkville, Mississippi
Coordinates: 33°27′45″N 88°49′12″W / 33.4625°N 88.82°W / 33.4625; -88.82
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Oktibbeha
City	1835
Government
- Type	Council-manager government
- Mayor	Parker Wiseman
Area
- Total	25.8 sq mi (66.9 km2)
- Land	25.7 sq mi (66.5 km2)
- Water	0.2 sq mi (0.4 km2)
Elevation	335 ft (102 m)
Population (2000)
- Total	21,869
- Density	851.4/sq mi (328.7/km2)
Time zone	Central (CST) (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP codes	39759-39760
Area code(s)	662
FIPS code	28-70240
GNIS feature ID	0678227
Website	http://www.cityofstarkville.org/

Starkville is a city in and the county seat of Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States.^[1] The population was 21,869 at the 2000 census.

The campus of Mississippi State University is located adjacent to the east of Starkville. As of the fall of 2008, MSU is the state of Mississippi's largest university with 17,824 undergraduates ^[2], more than 4,000 graduate students, and more than 1,300 staff. The university is also the largest employer of Starkville and dominates the city's economy. Students have created a ready audience for the Magnolia Film Festival. Held every February, it is the oldest film festival in the state. Other major events held in Starkville and heavily supported by the MSU Student Body are the Dudy Gras Parade, Cotton District Arts Festival, Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival, Old Main Music Festival, Ragtime Music Festival, and Bulldog Bash.

History

The Starkville area has been inhabited for over 2100 years. Artifacts in the form of clay pot fragments and artwork dating from that time period have been found east of Starkville at the Herman Mound and Village site, a National Historic Registered site located adjacent to Indian Mound Campground where a display of pottery, arrowheads and information is found. The modern early settlement of the Starkville area was started after the Choctaw inhabitants of Oktibbeha County surrendered their claims to land in the area in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830. White settlers were drawn to the Starkville area because of two large springs. A mill southwest of town provided clapboards which gave the town its original name, Boardtown. In 1835, Boardtown was established as the county seat of Oktibbeha County and its name was changed to Starkville in honor of Revolutionary War hero General John Stark^[3].

On March 21, 2006, Starkville became the first city in Mississippi to adopt a smoking ban for indoor public places, including restaurants and bars. This ordinance went into effect on May 20, 2006^[4].

Geography

Starkville is located at 33°27′45″N 88°49′12″W / 33.4625°N 88.82°W / 33.4625; -88.82 (33.462471, -88.819990)^[5].

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 25.8 square miles (66.9 km²), of which 25.7 square miles (66.5 km²) is land and 0.2 square miles (0.4 km²) (0.58%) is water.

US Highway 82 and Mississippi Highways 12 and 25 are major roads through Starkville. The nearest airport with scheduled service is Golden Triangle Regional Airport (GTR). George M. Bryan Field (KSTF) serves as Starkville's general aviation airport. There are multiple privately owned airstrips in the area.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000,^[6] there were 21,869 people, 9,462 households, and 4,721 families residing in the city. The population density was 851.4 people per square mile (328.7/km²). There were 10,191 housing units at an average density of 396.7/sq mi (153.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 64.60% White, 30.02% African American, 0.15% Native American, 3.75% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.64% from other races, and 0.80% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.34% of the population.

There were 9,462 households out of which 24.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.1% were married couples living together, 13.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.1% were non-families. 32.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.92.

In the city, the population was spread out with 20.0% under the age of 18, 29.7% from 18 to 24, 26.6% from 25 to 44, 15.2% from 45 to 64, and 8.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females there were 102.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $22,590, and the median income for a family was $39,557. Males had a median income of $35,782 versus $21,711 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,272. About 18.1% of families and 31.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.3% of those under age 18 and 16.8% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Public schools

The City of Starkville is served by the Starkville School District. Starkville High School athletics are designated as Class 6A, Region 1 in football and Class 6A, Division 2 in basketball.^[7]

Private schools

• Starkville Academy [2]
• Starkville Christian School [3]

Government

Starkville is located in Mississippi's 3^rd congressional district and its 3^rd state Supreme Court district. It is divided between state House districts 23, 35, 37, and 38, and between state Senate districts 15 and 16. Parker Wiseman (D) was elected mayor in 2009, replacing Dan Camp (D) to become the youngest Mayor in the State of Mississippi.

Popular culture

Famous American pilot Charles Lindbergh made a successful landing on the outskirts of Starkville in 1927 during his famous Guggenheim Tour ^[8] and stayed at a boarding house in the Maben community. Lindbergh later wrote about that landing in his autobiographical account of his barnstorming days, titled "WE."

Starkville is purportedly the birthplace of Tee Ball, invented by Dr. Clyde Muse, a member of the Starkville Rotarians in 1961 ^[9]. Dr. Muse was also an educator in Starkville, having been principal of Starkville High School for many years. He also was a renowned baseball and basketball coach (one of his early teams won a State Championship. Members included Lewis Mallory, Jackie Wofford, Barry Wood, and Carse Smith.) The town itself is considered to be the Baseball Capital of the South, having been the birthplace of National Baseball Hall of Famer Cool Papa Bell and Mississippi State University, whose Diamond Dogs have made nine trips to the NCAA Baseball College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

Notorious American gangster Machine Gun Kelly lived in Starkville for two years while attending Mississippi State University. He enrolled in the university to study agriculture in 1917.

Johnny Cash was arrested for public drunkenness (though he described it as being picked up for picking flowers) in Starkville and held overnight at the city jail on May 11, 1965, which was the inspiration for his song "Starkville City Jail":

"They're bound to get you, Cause they got a curfew, And you go to the Starkville city jail."

The song appears on the album At San Quentin. Local oral tradition has it that he finished a gig at what is now the Dave's Darkhorse Tavern, and then walked a block west to the northwest corner of Lee Boulevard (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.) and Montgomery Street, where he helped himself to the flower bed at the front of the house.

Each year the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival is held in Starkville, the city where Cash had been arrested over forty years earlier. The festival, where he was offered a symbolic posthumous pardon, honors Cash's life and music.^[10] The festival was started by Robbie Ward, who urged the town to hold it annually based on the premise that: "Johnny Cash was arrested in seven places, but he only wrote a song about one of those places."^[11] Performers at the festival have included Rosanne Cash, Carlene Carter, Jimmy Tittle, Marty Stuart, Billy Joe Shaver and Joanne Cash. Marshall Grant, a founding member of the Tennessee Three, helps organize the event.

A song titled "Starkville" appears on the Indigo Girls' 2002 album Become You.

Starkville also appears on a map of Mississippi in the controversial 2007 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

The Mississippi Horse Park in Starkville is a National Top 40 Rodeo Facility and is considered one of the top tourist attractions in North Mississippi.

Starkville has the Magnolia Film Festival, held annually in February. It is the oldest festival in the state for independent films.

The annual Cotton District Arts Festival in Starkville, held in the Historic Cotton District the 3rd weekend of April, is considered to be one of the top arts festivals in the state, drawing a record crowd of nearly 25,000 in 2008. On hand for the festivities were Y'all Magazine, Southern Living Magazine and Peavey Electronics, over 100 of the state's top artisans and 25 live bands.

Starkville is also the home of Bulldog Bash, Mississippi's largest open-air free concert.

Located on the MSU campus, the Cullis and Gladys Wade Clock Museum boasts an extensive collection of mostly American clocks and watches dating as far back as the early 1700s. The collection of over 400 clocks is the only one of its size in the region.

Media

Starkville is served by two daily papers, Starkville Daily News and The Starkville Dispatch. The High Cotton News is a weekly paper. (Out of print)

Notable people of Starkville

Birthplace of:

• Cool Papa Bell, African-American baseball great, 1903-1991
• Antuan Edwards, NFL player
• Shauntay Hinton, Miss USA 2002
• Jasmine Murray, beauty queen, and top 13 finalist on American idol.
• Hayes Jones, gold medalist in the 110-meter hurdles at the Tokyo 1964 Olympics
• Freddie Milons, wide receiver, University of Alabama, later played for the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles
• Jess Mowry (b 1960), American writer of juvenile books
• Travis Outlaw, NBA player for the Portland Trail Blazers
• Jerry Rice, National Football League Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, and Seattle Seahawks, three-time Super Bowl champion; set and still owns multiple NFL and NCAA records for receiving
• Ray Mabus, current Secretary of the Navy, former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and former governor of Mississippi.

Current residence of:

• Jeffrey Haupt, renowned painter and art professor of Mississippi State University.
• Gregory Byrne, Mississippi State University Athletic Director
• Dan Mullen, Mississippi State University head football coach
• Willie Daniel, world champion running back for the Los Angeles Rams and former Mississippi State University stand-out
• Bailey Howell, world champion center for the NBA's Boston Celtics and former Mississippi State University stand-out
• Amy Tuck, Mississippi's former Lieutenant Governor

Educated in:

• Rich Fields, announcer, The Price is Right
• Edwin Granberry, one of the writers of the comic strip Buz Sawyer
• John Grisham, acclaimed author of international best-selling novels A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Runaway Jury, The Client, The Chamber, etc.
• G.V. 'Sonny' Montgomery, U.S. congressman
• Hartley Peavey, founder of Peavey Electronics, the world's largest manufacturer of sound amplification equipment
• John C. Stennis, U.S. Senator
• See also: List of Mississippi State University notable alumni

Other famous residents:

• Dee Barton, composer
• Machine Gun Kelly, Prohibition-era gangster
• Shane McRae, actor, appeared in Hack, guest starred on One Life to Live, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and was one of the stars of the ill-fated sitcom, Four Kings
• Major General William M. Miley (Bud Miley), U.S. 17th Airborne Division World War II, former assistant professor of military science at Mississippi State University
• Del Rendon, singer and guitarist (Puerto Rican Rum Drunks)

Transportation

Golden Triangle Regional Airport serves Starkville and The Golden Triangle with connections to Memphis and Atlanta on Delta Connection. George M. Bryan Airport a private airport that only serves Starkville.

Religion

Starkville boasts over eighty houses of worship, accommodating almost all religious traditions, largely due to the presence of Mississippi State University, which attracts people with a diverse range of nationalities ^[12]. As of October 2007, approximately half (49.74%) of people in Starkville claim a religious affiliation, with the majority (41.59% ) self-identifying as Protestant. Starkville has moderate percentages of Baptist (25%) and Methodist (11%) adherents and small percentages of Catholic, Hindu, Mormon, and Islamic adherents as well .^[13][14]

See also

• Mississippi State University

References

Citations

External links

• Official City of Starkville Website
• Greater Starkville Development Partnership (GSDP) Website
• Official Oktibbeha County Website
• Starkville School District Website
• Oktibbeha County Hospital Website
• GTR Airport Website
• Starkville / Oktibbeha Public Library Website
• Starkville Daily News Website
• The Starkville Dispatch Website
• High Cotton News Website
• Starkville Area Arts Council Website
• City Wiki (unofficial)
• Mississippi State University Welcome Center

• Starkville, Mississippi is at coordinates 33°27′45″N 88°49′12″W / 33.462471°N 88.81999°W / 33.462471; -88.81999 (Starkville, Mississippi)Coordinates: 33°27′45″N 88°49′12″W / 33.462471°N 88.81999°W / 33.462471; -88.81999 (Starkville, Mississippi)

v • d • e Municipalities and communities of Oktibbeha County, Mississippi County seat: Starkville City Starkville Towns Maben‡ | Sturgis Unincorporated communities Bradley | Longview | Oktoc | Osborn | Sessums Footnotes ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties

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