GEOFACT OF THE DAY → Located in the northwestern corner of Sharkey County along U.S. Highway 61 in western Mississippi, Panther Burn had an estimated population of 300 in 1988 and has remained almost the same — without any noticeable developments — ever since. Almost completely surrounded by farmland (mostly grain and some cotton), Panther Burn is home to several dozen homes. Due to the community’s agricultural heritage, there are quite a few grain bins, storage buildings, and pole barns to store crops and equipment. Saint John M.B. (Missionary Baptist) Church is located along the U.S. Highway, and the community used to have several businesses including Leon’s Juke Joint.
The Ophelia Explains It All Blog (↗) notes that Panther Burn “does have a post office.” To clarify, the town has a ZIP code all to itself: 38765, which is rather easy to remember because of its consecutive numbers! However, the nearest post offices and approved postal providers in existence as of October 2019 are found in the towns of Anguilla (6.9 miles away), Arcola (14.1 mi), Chatham (10.6 mi), Glen Allan (8.4 mi), Grace (6.3 mi), Hollandale (7.3 mi), and Rolling Fork (10.9 mi) according to the online United States Postal Service post-office lookup (↗).
Undoubtedly, one of the most intriguing aspects of this town would be its unique name.
Here is one of the local lore explanations for Panther Burn being named Panther Burn, according to Ellen Ciurczak of the Hattiesburg American newspaper (↗): a panther frightened the locals, so they captured the threatening animal in a barn which they set on fire. Ciurczak notes, “While watching the blaze, they yelled ‘Burn panther burn!’” The simplest (and less gruesome) explanation for the “burn” part of the town’s name is that it could refer to the town’s local proximity to a stream, which happens to be labeled Deer Creek on US Geological Survey topographic maps. “Burn” is an English term used to indicate small rivers, streams, and creeks. Maybe instead of Deer Creek, locals call it Panther Creek — especially if panthers were spotted along the banks decades ago. A commenter (Katie Dean Davis) on the Ophelia Explains It All Blog said she knows about Panther Burn and visited the town on from time to time. She explained the name of Panther Burn which “goes back to May 22, 1816”:
Martha Patience Vick married Colonel William Willis. The couple received a house on Cherry Street in Vicksburg and Panther Burn Plantation as wedding gifts. The name was derived from the clearing of the land for farm and settlement. They weren’t setting the panthers on fire, but their shelter in the brush of the swamp land [was] being cleared for cotton crops. Legend tells of panthers running from burn pile to burn pile seeking shelter.
Despite being a small dot on the map, Panther Burn is referenced in at least one book, movie, and song. A fictional sheriff of Panther Burn — and possibly Sharkey County as a whole — is mentioned in Blue Brothers 2000, a 1998 musical comedy film starring Dan Aykroyd and John Goodman. In 2009, Roosevelt Wright Jr. published a fiction book entitled The Children of Panther Burn: A Historic Fiction. For your reference in case you wish to buy and read the book, Wright Jr.’s book has the following 13-digit International Standard Book Number: 9781440146510 (ISBN-13). Jimmy Phillips dropped an album called “Desperate Moon” in 2012, and a reminiscent country song called Panther Burn is featured on it.
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