It’s the mournful sounds of the Delta Blues. A step back into another era. A seat at the head table. Familiar footprints in the sand. A renewed appreciation for the great outdoors. Whatever your passion, follow it to Mississippi.
 

Music enthusiasts travelling the Blues Highway, US Highway 61 from Memphis to Vicksburg, uncover a fascinating tour of the Mississippi Delta, the region that spawned legends B.B. King, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson and scores of other blues greats that paved the way for musicians all over the world. Wander the interpretive Mississippi Blues Trail and experience the blues where they were born and where its ambassadors worked during the day and played after sundown.
       
     
Dance in original juke joints to the music that still shapes the sounds of generations of artists. The brave will walk the Crossroads…the intersection of Highways 61 and 49, where Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the devil to play the blues like no other.
     
   

If you are a literature lover, visit Oxford and Rowan Oak, the home of Nobel prizewinner William Faulkner. From there you can travel to Tennessee Williams’ home of Clarksdale, the setting that informed much of his writing. Find your way on the back roads to Yazoo City, home of Willie Morris, and breathe in the sights and sounds that birthed such stories as My Dog Skip. Approach one writer’s beginnings and ponder the heart of Mississippi’s daughter Eudora Welty at her home in Jackson, the background for much of her inspiring work.

March the steps of the Confederacy in Vicksburg, 40 miles west of the state capital Jackson, and world famous for its National Military Park commemorating the 47-day siege and battle by General Ulysses Grant that changed the course of the Civil War. You can also see the USS Cairo, a Union ironclad sunk by the South and raised after more than 100 years underwater.

Savor upscale and down-home dining at our award-winning restaurants all over the state, serving delectable dishes from fresh seafood to tear-jerking tamales. Nowhere else offers you more treasures and pleasures. Mississippi has the two most popular gaming destinations in the middle of the United States in Tunica and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, plus the Choctaw Indians’ lavish Golden Moon and Silver Star Resort and Casino in Philadelphia. US Highway 90 from east to west along the Gulf Coast spans brilliant bays and backwaters, passes neon-lit casinos resorts, barrier islands, white sand beaches and eventually becomes a home for fine arts, distinctive shopping and a mouth-watering menu and culture all its own.

Historic sites, trails and picnic spots mark the scenic two-lane road that follows the 444-mile Natchez Trace, the path taken centuries ago by flatboat men, pioneers, trappers and Indians. One of the most popular sites on the Trace is Tupelo, where the most famous singer of them all, Elvis Presley, was born in a tiny house known as a “shotgun shack.” The parkway’s namesake Natchez is the oldest permanent settlement on the Mississippi River and the site of the largest collection of antebellum buildings in the United States. Look through the stately oak trees and innumerable white columns for a vibrant example of the golden era when cotton was King and the Mississippi River was the King’s highway. If you’re looking for a great adventure, a great escape or simply a great dinner, then we invite you to Mississippi… where memories are made and friends are always welcome.

For more information please contact:
Mississippi Tourism
T: 01462 440787
E: mississippi@deep-south-usa.com
www.visitmississippi.org


  
     
 
   


   
 
     
 
 
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