Recreation and Places
of Interest
Mississippi’s abundant water resources
and mild climate provide residents and tourists
with recreational opportunities throughout the
year. Facilities for water sports include boating,
swimming, and fishing in almost all the state-administered
parks and recreation areas and in the recreation
areas administered by the federal government.
National Parks
The National Park Service administers seven
units in Mississippi. Four of them, Tupelo National
Battlefield, Vicksburg National Military Park,
Vicksburg National Cemetery, and Brices Cross
Roads National Battlefield Site, are associated
with the American Civil War (1861-1865) (see
Vicksburg, Campaign of; Brices Cross Roads, Battle
of). Vicksburg National Military Park commemorates
the siege and defense of Vicksburg, one of the
most decisive battles of the Civil War. Today
the battlefield at Vicksburg includes more than
1,300 monuments and markers, reconstructed trenches
and earthworks, and cannon emplacements. The
Vicksburg National Cemetery, established in 1866,
contains more than 18,000 graves. The identities
of those in nearly three-quarters of the graves
are unknown. Soldiers from the Civil War, the
Spanish-American War (1898), World War I (1914-1918),
World War II (1939-1945), and the Korean War
(1950-1953) are buried in the cemetery. Natchez
Trace Parkway, most, but not all, of which lies
in Mississippi, follows the route of a historic
Native American and pioneer road. The Mississippi
section of the Gulf Islands National Seashore
contains Fort Massachusetts and several primitive
offshore islands. The newest unit, Natchez National
Historical Park, is centered among one of the
country’s best-preserved concentrations
of homes from the time before the Civil War,
known as the antebellum period.
National Forests
The six national forests in Mississippi cover
467,000 hectares (1,153,000 acres). The largest,
De Soto National Forest, covers more than 200,000
hectares (500,000 acres) of dense pine forest
in the southeast. The other forests are Bienville,
Delta, Holly Springs, Homochitto, and Tombigbee.
Most of them have camping, hunting, fishing,
and boating facilities.
State Parks
Mississippi had 27 state parks in the mid-1990s.
The oldest and among the largest is Leroy Percy
State Park, set in a bayou area along the Mississippi
River. Another is Tishomingo, in the rolling
hills and woodlands of northeastern Mississippi.
Percy Quin, in southern Mississippi, has hiking
trails through pine and oak forests. Tombigbee
is in pine-forested countryside in the northeast.
Clarkco, in the east, is noted for its plant
and animal life.
The Sam Dale State Historic Site, near Daleville,
honors General Sam Dale, a frontiersman and hero
of the War of 1812. The Nanih Waiya State Historic
Site, in east-central Mississippi, features a
mound considered by the Choctaw to be sacred.
Museums
Among the fine arts museums in the state are
the Lauren Rogers Library and Museum of Art,
in Laurel; the Mississippi Museum of Art, in
Jackson; the Meridian Museum of Art; and the
art museum of the University of Mississippi.
Other museum collections at the universities
are devoted to archaeology, geology, and the
history of science. Three of the best-known museums
in Mississippi, all in Jackson, are the Old Capitol
Museum of Mississippi History, the Mississippi
Museum of Natural Science, affiliated with the
state department of wildlife conservation, and
the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry/National
Agricultural Aviation Museum, affiliated with
the state department of agriculture.
Other Places to Visit
The Gulf Coast region is the most popular resort
area in the state and is the site of notable
historic attractions. One of them, the Old Spanish
Fort, at Pascagoula, is said to be the oldest
existing building in the lower Mississippi Valley.
Built in 1718 as a carpenter’s or blacksmith’s
shack, it and an associated museum adjoin a cemetery
containing the graves of early settlers. Beauvoir,
the last home of Jefferson Davis, president of
the Confederacy, stands near Biloxi.
The Natchez area is the center of antebellum
architecture in Mississippi. Many of the mansions
and their beautiful gardens are open to visitors.
Additional places of interest are found in and
around Jackson and Vicksburg. In Jackson are
the Governor’s Mansion, completed in 1842,
and the former state capitol, which dates from
the 1830s. The capitol building, seat of the
state legislature until 1903, now houses the
Mississippi State Historical Museum. Places to
visit at Vicksburg include the Old Courthouse
Museum, which contains mementos of the Confederacy;
and the Cairo, a restored Civil War gunboat,
which contains various historical artifacts from
that era. The casinos in Mississippi are all
located, as required by law, on naturally navigable
waterways aboard permanently moored vessels.
There are concentrations of resort casinos along
the Gulf Coast and at several sites on the Mississippi
River. The one exception is the casino not under
state control located on the Choctaw reservation
in Neshoba County.
Source: MSN
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