Mantachie, MS

Mantachie is an Itawamba County town fourteen miles northeast of Tupelo, at the meeting of Mississippi Highways 363 and 371. The 2020 census counted 1,121 residents. The community began near Center Star Cemetery in the mid-1850s under the name Lone Star, then moved south to its present site in the 1880s. Before the town's streets took shape, this was Chickasaw country: a large Chickasaw village stood near the old Jacinto Road, and the name Mantachie comes from Man-ta-chee, a Chickasaw leader remembered in the local place story. The removal era is part of that history; most Chickasaws left after the 1832 Treaty of Pontotoc Creek.

Modern Mantachie still wears its crossroads beginning. Woods Pearce's store gave the town an early commercial center, while Mantachie Creek runs west of town toward the Tombigbee River. MS 371 carries traffic through the agricultural country, and Interstate 22 is five miles south. The Itawamba County School District keeps the town's school life close to home, with Mantachie Elementary, Junior High, and High School serving successive grades. The result is a place where a highway junction, creek bottom, school campus, and Chickasaw history all sit within the same north Mississippi frame.