Rolling Fork, MS

Rolling Fork is Sharkey County's seat, a Delta town whose story has both deep roots and a hard recent chapter. Chaney settled here in 1828, after Choctaw communities had been pushed from the area through settler pressure and government treaties. The Great Delta Bear Affair, started in 2002, gave the town a lighter signature: each festival brings another hand-carved bear, turning local art into a kind of running town record. A 2023 EF4 tornado destroyed much of Rolling Fork and killed 14 people; the bear festival returned that fall, even though earlier carvings were lost. Rolling Fork's identity is a Mississippi Delta county seat, a bear-carving tradition, and a community still putting its pieces back together.