Gavin de Gruiter
November 20, 2022.
Figure 1. Map of Lamar County. Map of Mississippi showing county with cities,road highways,counties,towns (east-usa.com).
Figure 2. Land Cover and Use. North American Land Change Monitoring System. Land Cover, 2015 (Landsat,30m) (conabio.gob.mx).
Figure 3. Hattiesburg Zoning Map. - City of Hattiesburg (hattiesburgms.com).
Lamar County is mostly made up of small towns such as Purvis, Sumrall, and Lumberton. It also has unincorporated areas like Oak Grove or Oloh. Lamar County would only have small towns, but part of Hattiesburg is located in the northeast corner of Lamar County, making Hattiesburg the largest town/city located in Lamar County.
Compared to the other towns/cities in Lamar County Hattiesburg is huge. Purvis and Sumrall have populations of around 2,000, while Hattiesburg is a little under 50,000. In figure 2, towns in Lamar County can barely be picked out, but Hattiesburg (at the top right) is obvious. Figure 2 shows the settlement patterns of the people in Lamar County. The majority of the people live in Hattiesburg or on the edge of the city in the Oak Grove area. According to the map, the rest of the county seems like just a completely rural area. Figure 2 shows that the urban and built-up areas, that are not in Hattiesburg/Oak Grove, are the major roads. Most of the rural area has its population living on the major highways, and some around some lakes. Lamar County population settlement, outside Hattiesburg, is made up of dispersed rural settlements where people live scattered across the county. There really are not any urban/built-up areas outside of Hattiesburg and Oak Grove in Lamar County. Sumrall is the largest town behind Hattiesburg, and it has a population of 2,200. The other towns in Hattiesburg do not have over a dozen zones like Hattiesburg. They have two or three main roads closely connected where the majority of the businesses are.
Hattiesburg is the fifth most populated city in Mississippi, and it is located in two counties. It is mostly in Forrest County, but there is some of it in Lamar County. Hattiesburg's zoning is under the multiple-nuclei model. There are four types of zones in Hattiesburg: agricultural (A), business (B), industrial (I), and residential zones (R). The agricultural areas are mostly on the edges of the city. The majority are located near water, namely the Bouie and Leaf Rivers which make up the eastern and northern borders of the city. The business zones are located on the main roads like Highway 98, Hardy Street, I59, I49, the intersection between I49 and I59, and Broadway Drive. There are a few industrial zones, the largest ones are in the southeast part of Hattiesburg. The residential zones are scattered around the city, mostly on the edges of business zones. The settlement of Hattiesburg began in the downtown area, which is in the northeast part of the city. This spot was chosen due to its location to the Leaf and Bouie Rivers. Hattiesburg could not settle east of the Leaf River, because the city of Petal, part of the Hattiesburg metropolitan area, is on the other side. Due to this, Hattiesburg has settled more and more west over time, which is why Oak Grove is so heavily populated compared to the rest of Lamar County. Oak Grove is the entire southwest corner of figure 3. Now the population is growing in Bellevue, the unincorporated area directly west of Oak Grove. While Hattiesburg has large residential zones, many of Hattiesburg's suburbs are located in areas like Oak Grove. Many people living in the suburbs in Oak Grove commute to Hattiesburg for work.
The settlement patterns in Lamar County are clear, the majority of the land is rural small towns, while the urban and built-up areas are in Hattiesburg and Oak Grove. Hattiesburg's metropolitan area is moving more west, and Hattiesburg's zones mostly depend on the major roads and rivers.
Map of Mississippi showing county with cities,road highways,counties,towns (east-usa.com). Accessed November 16, 2022.
North American Land Change Monitoring System. Land Cover, 2015 (Landsat,30m) (conabio.gob.mx). Accessed November 16, 2022.
- City of Hattiesburg (hattiesburgms.com). Accessed November 20, 2022.
Comments