Pemiscot County, Missouri

Pemiscot County
County
Pemiscot County Courthouse in Caruthersville
Location within the U.S. state of Missouri
Missouri's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 36°13′N 89°47′W / 36.21°N 89.78°W / 36.21; -89.78
Country	United States
State	Missouri
Founded	February 19, 1851
Named for	Fox word meaning "liquid mud"
Seat	Caruthersville
Largest city	Caruthersville
Area
• Total	513 sq mi (1,330 km2)
• Land	493 sq mi (1,280 km2)
• Water	21 sq mi (50 km2)  4.1%
Population  (2020)
• Total	15,661
• Density	31/sq mi (12/km2)
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Congressional district	8th
Website	www.pemiscotcounty.org

Pemiscot County is a county located in the southeastern corner in the Bootheel in the U.S. state of Missouri, with the Mississippi River forming its eastern border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,661. The largest city and county seat is Caruthersville.^[1] The county was officially organized on February 19, 1851.^[2] It is named for the local bayou, taken from the word pem-eskaw, meaning "liquid mud", in the language of the native Fox (Meskwaki) people.^[3] This has been an area of cotton plantations and later other commodity crops.

Murphy Mound Archeological Site has one of the largest platform mounds in Missouri. It is a major earthwork of the Late Mississippian culture, which had settlement sites throughout the Mississippi Valley and tributaries. The site is privately owned and is not open to the public. The site may have been occupied from as early as 1200 CE and continuing to about 1541.^[4]