Grand Gulf began in the 18th century as a small British settlement and by 1828 had grown into a village with three stores, one tavern, several houses, a stage line to Port Gibson, and steamboats stopping at its wharves. Incorporated in 1833, it was named for a large whirlpool formed where the Mississippi River struck a great rock formation. By the late 1830's Grand Gulf had become an important port and trading center with seventy-six city blocks and about 1000 people. Its decline began in 1843 with a yellow fever epidemic, and in 1853 a tornado devastated a large portion of the town. Yellow fever and cholera epidemics caused further population losses, while the Mississippi River changed course and began eating into the land on which the town was built. Between 1855 and 1860, fifty-five city blocks were destroyed by the river, and by 1860 only one hundred fifty-eight people remained. During the Civil War, Federal troops and gunboats destroyed the rest of the town. It was never rebuilt after the war, and today only a few antebellum buildings remain scattered along what had once been the town's outskirts.