Friars Point, founded in 1836, was the original county seat of Coahoma County, located right on the Mississippi River. It suffered damage in the Civil War, but remained the county seat even after the railroad town of Clarksdale began to grow and prosper inland. But the same river that had made Friars Point prosperous began to destroy it. The river began eating away at the bluff on which the town was built, and frightened county leaders, who decided to move the courthouse and county records to Clarksdale in 1930. Nothing marks the location of the old courthouse, but Friars Point remains a sleepy, historic town.