Ecru, MS

Ecru is a Pontotoc County town where an old railroad name sits beside a large modern manufacturing operation. The 2020 census counted 901 residents. Colonel William Clark Falkner established the community after the Civil War, and local history connects the name Ecru to the pale color of the first railroad depot. Mississippi Highway 15 runs along the town's north-south spine, while the older parts of Ecru extend east along Highway 345. The Ashley Furniture plant occupies the southwest side near Highway 346, making the town's working landscape larger than its size might suggest.

Ecru's rail history has a second life as the Tanglefoot Trail, which follows a former railroad corridor through town. The trail gives the town a link to the broader north Mississippi landscape, while the Little Tallahatchie River and surrounding farm country keep the local geography open beyond the highway grid. Pontotoc County School District serves Ecru, and the town's everyday map is a mix of school routes, plant traffic, older storefronts, and the trail crossing Railroad Avenue. Ecru is not just a sign beside Highway 15; it is a small town shaped first by a depot and now by the overlap of furniture, roads, and a rail line turned trail.