Many Rivers to Cross – Mississippi

From moss-draped trees to big city attractions, the Mississippi is a river with something for everyone: ante bellum mansions and cotton plantations, cannon-lined battlefields, floating casinos, water parks and native American settlements. But it’s the history that makes this region really rich. Lured by stories of incredible opportunities to strike it rich in lumber, fur, wheat or lead mining, thousands of settlers headed to America's heartland. Many immigrants had intended to go further west but seeing the fertile fields, rolling hills and clear waters of the region, they decided to end their journey along the big Muddy. Jefferson Davis grew up here, just down the river from where Union troops began their famous assault on Vicksburg. Natchez contains one of the greatest collections of pre-Civil War homes in America. Then there’s the legendary mystique of the Delta Region - famous bluesman Robert Johnson is said to have lost his soul here and his history and music live on at Clarksdale's Delta Blues Museum. Sacred Native Indian mounds dot the Delta earth, just a short hop from Leland. Leland, you must know it, home of one of American’s most famous sons? Go on, have a guess … no? Okay, I’ll tell you, Leland is the birthplace of Kermit the frog.

If adventure holidays are you big thing – the Pat Harrison Waterway District (PHWD) is a Mississippi State Agency that provides camping, cabins and recreational facilities in Mississippi and is responsible for managing the rivers and their tributaries along the Pascagoula River Basin. It actually operates a total of nine ‘water parks’, which are like campsites but on the river, and they all have excellent with facilities including cabins, camping sites, water slides, boat launches, shelters, nature trails, etc.

Mississippi photograph by mulad, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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