Page 363 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

MISSISSIPPI  361

features 19th-century scientific
instruments and the Theora
Hamblett folk art collection.
P Rowan Oak
916 Old Taylor Rd. Tel (662) 234-3284.
Open 10am–4pm Tue–Sat, 1–4pm
Sun (to 6pm Jun & Jul). Closed some
public & university hols. & 7
E University Museum
University Ave at Fifth St. Tel (662)
915-7073. Open 10am–6pm Tue–Sat.
Closed some public & university hols.
& 7 ∑ olemiss.edu
r Tupelo Grave markers in Vicksburg National Military Park
* 37,000. n 399 E Main St, (662) 150 restored cars and includes most tragic sieges in Civil War
841-6521. ∑ tupelo.net a replica of a vintage garage. history (see p57). Its strategic
Tupelo offers all the basic location, high on the bluffs
An hour’s drive west from Oxford, necessities for lodging and overlooking the Mississippi
Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis dining, and serves as a pit stop River, made Vicksburg the target
Presley, one of the world’s most for the famous Natchez Trace of Union forces, which wanted
enduring cultural icons. Here, Parkway (see p362). to gain control of the vital river
in a modest, two-room shotgun corridor and cut the Confederacy
shack on the eastern fringe of P Elvis Presley Birthplace in half. On March 29, 1863,
town, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll 306 Elvis Presley Dr. Tel (662) 841- the Union Army surrounded the
was born in 1935, along with his 1245. Open 9am–5pm Mon–Sat, city. After a 47-day siege, the
stillborn twin Jesse. Elvis lived in 1–5pm Sun. Closed Thanksgiving, Confederates surrendered on
Tupelo until age 13, when the Dec 25. & 7 July 4, 1863, giving the North
family was forced by financial ∑ elvispresleybirthplace.com undisputed control of the river
constraints to move to Memphis and sounding the death knell of
(see p268). Today the Elvis the Confederacy. The impact
Presley Birthplace, refurbished t Vicksburg of defeat was so severe that
to look as it did in 1935, is a National Military Vicksburg’s citizens refused to
pilgrimage site for Elvis fans the Park recognize the Fourth of July
world over. An adjacent museum holiday until the mid-20th
holds a unique private collection 3201 Clay St. n (601) 636-0583. century. The campaign’s story
of Elvis memorabilia. A chapel, Open 8am–5pm daily. Closed Jan 1, is retold in statuary head-
which overlooks the birthplace, Thanksgiving, Dec 25. & 7 stones, earthworks, and
displays Elvis’ s own bible. ∑ nps.gov/vick artifacts at the park. Guided
The Tupelo Automobile tours bring the landscape to
Museum, the first of its kind The Vicksburg National Military life, where re- enactments of
in the state, displays more than Park, established in 1899, the Civil War are held from
commemorates one of the June through August.
Blues Music
The sound at the root of all contemporary popular music heard
around the world springs from the large, flat, alluvial basin called the
Mississippi Delta. Here African rhythms, work chants, and spirituals
evolved into a distinctive style of music
known as the blues. When Alabama
musician W.C. Handy came through the
Delta in 1903, he declared it “the weirdest
music I ever heard,” and carried the sound
up to Memphis, where he recorded the
Memphis Blues. Along with the great
migration of African-Americans from the
rural South to the industrial North in the
early 1900s, the blues reached Chicago,
where such famous artists as Muddy Waters
electrifed the sound. Rock ‘n’ roll is said to be Muddy Waters figure in
Statue of young Elvis at Tupelo, his born from this musical genre. Delta Blues Museum
birthplace

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