July 5, 2010

Milligan Ridge in western Mississippi County was once a thriving farm community in an area known as Buffalo Island. Settled in the mid-1890s, it was one of the last swamp areas drained and reclaimed for farming. The community slowly grew into a typical small farm town. The changes in farm technology brought on in the 1940s and 1950s resulted in many people leaving to seek jobs in the cities. By 2001, the last store and the office of the Caudill Brothers Gin, shown in this 1962 photograph, closed, leaving the Baptist church as the only active entity in Milligan Ridge.