Reelfoot Lake, formed after the New Madrid earthquakes in the early 19th century, occupies much of the northern part of the county.

Issues of control of the lake and the development of cotton plantations in this part of the county resulted in violence by local farmers against corporate owners in 1908; the state called in the militia to suppress night riding.

In this era, western Tennessee and Kentucky were being developed for cotton culture and the lowlands around the lake were fertile floodplain.

Beginning with the burning of John Carlos Burdick's fish docks on April 12, 1908, they committed crimes over a period of months, harassing the land company's employees.

[1] Given this attack and murder, Governor Malcolm Patterson personally led the Tennessee National Guard into the area, and arrested hundreds of suspected Night Riders.

[7] The Night Riders also rode against African Americans, as they were resisting the increase of blacks in the counties, some of whom had come to work as sharecroppers on newly developed cotton plantations.

Since the late 19th century, the white-dominated legislature had passed Jim Crow laws and increasing restrictions on voters.

The state gained title to Reelfoot Lake in 1914 to preserve it for public use, but actions were tied up for some years in court challenges.

[7] To prevent private development from restricting its use, in 1925 Governor Austin Peay designated the lake as a hunting and fishing reserve.

Most of these murders were committed in the decades around the turn of the century,[9] during the period of heightened violence related to opposition to corporate control of Reelfoot Lake and the introduction of cotton plantations and African-American workers to this area.

From 1950 to 1990 the population declined noticeably, as many African Americans moved to cities or to the West Coast in the Great Migration of the second half of the 20th century.

The eastern half of the county sits mostly in Reelfoot Lake State Park, a 280 acre recreational area with sections for boating, hunting, fishing, and bird watching.