Lamar, Mississippi

Lamar is an unincorporated community in Benton County, Mississippi, United States.[1] It is located along Mississippi Highway 7 in western Benton County. Although it is unincorporated, Lamar has a post office, with the ZIP code of 38642.[2] The nearly abandoned Mississippi Central Railroad runs through Lamar, and is only used rarely for freight trafficking.[3] Lamar shares its ZIP code with the nearby community of Slayden.

Lamar, Mississippi
Unincorporated community
Lamar, Mississippi Show map of Mississippi Lamar, Mississippi Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 34°55′02″N 89°19′04″W
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Benton
Elevation	492 ft (150 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code	38683
Area code(s)	662
GNIS feature ID	672275[1]

History

Lamar was named in honor of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, member of the United States Senate from Mississippi.[4] Lamar was originally located in Marshall County, but after Benton County was created from Marshall County and Tippah County, the town was moved two miles east to be closer to the railroad. Lamar was formerly home to a school.[5] A post office first began operation under the name Lamar in 1837.[6]

References

1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Lamar
2. Zip Code Lookup Archived 2011-06-15 at the Wayback Machine
3. Howe, Tony. "Lamar, Mississippi". Mississippi Rails. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
4. Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Government Printing Office. pp. 180.
5. Rowland, Dunbar (1907). Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. 2. Southern Historical Publishing Association. p. 21.
6. "Benton County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved 4 May 2020.