Jackson, city, capital of Mississippi, U.S. It lies along the Pearl River, in the west-central part of the state, about 180 miles (290 km) north of New Orleans, Louisiana. Jackson is also the coseat (with nearby Raymond) of Hinds county. Settled (1792) by Louis LeFleur, a French-Canadian trader, and known as LeFleur’s Bluff, it remained a trading post until the Treaty of Doak’s Stand (October 18, 1820) opened the territory to white settlement. Selected as the site for the state capital and named for Andrew Jackson, it was laid out (April 1822) using Thomas Jefferson’s checkerboard plan with alternate squares
Following a month in which city residents have had no drinking water, a series of compounding problems has left the city with no running water at all. The governor has declared a sate of emergency to assist in getting pumps back online.