Metcalfe, MS

Metcalfe sits in Washington County on the Mississippi River side of the Delta, where levees, rail lines, and farm fields shape the town’s setting. The 2020 census counted 816 residents. Its location places it in the low-lying agricultural region where river transport and flood-control works have long organized settlement. Metcalfe became a railroad junction on the line from Leland and the north-south Riverside District of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley system. Its post office opened in 1915, giving the town another small but durable link to the wider Delta.

Western Line School District, based in Avon, serves the area and connects Metcalfe to schools beyond its town limits. The Mississippi River remains the western reference point, while the levee system marks the practical boundary between farmland and water. Metcalfe’s present map is compact and rural, with school, road, rail, river, and farm systems sharing the work of organizing the town. The town’s character comes from that overlap: a small municipal place tied closely to the larger Delta landscape.