Town Facts

Vardaman is a rural community of 1,000 people in central Mississippi. Located at latitude 33°53'47: N and longitude 89°10'37"W (33.879834,-89.176929), the town consists of 1.36 square miles.  Vardaman is a farming community with the major crop being the famous Vardaman Sweet Potato.  It's sweet potato crop has earned Vardaman the title of "Sweet Potato Capital of the World," and the town hosts an annual Sweet Potato Festival during the first full week of November.

Vardaman was formed while James K. Vardaman served as governor of the great state of Mississippi.  Though the town was named for Governor Vardaman, the post office (a federal institution) was refused the name.  Hence, the post office operated under the name of Timberville.  As a local newspaper reported:

August 29, 1912 - Calhoun Monitor - Pittsboro, MS

Vardaman Is P. O. Name 

  The daily papers last week contained a dispatch stating that the postoffice authorities had finally agreed to allow the name of the postoffice in this county known for the past several years as Timberville, located in the town of Vardaman, to be changed to Vardaman.  The papers also stated that this change was due to the efforts of Congressman Sisson, who had worked long and faithfully toward this end.
  It will be remembered that this town was named at its founding after Gov. Jas. K. Vardaman who was then governor of the state, and naturally the people desired the post office named the same name as the town, but the postoffice authorities refused to allow the postoffice to be called Vardaman and the cause is said to have been that Col. Roosevelt, who was then President, gave strict instructions against it.  Roosevelt doesn't like Vardaman on account of some pretty hard things Vardaman said about him.
We are glad of the change.