Travel advice please.

[Kiwi cop]

With the contracts signed and the next two weeks off work, Karen and I are starting to firm up our plans for our American return trip.

One of the areas we didn't get to last time, and want to explore (okay I want to explore), is the lower Mississippi river, this time from Baton Rouge to Vicksburg. I have to admit this is fuelled by something I read by Billy T Gibbons about trip he made through the area.

Presently I am thinking Highway 61, but I cannot find too much about "tourist" things, especially musically related. So.........

Should we take Highway 61 or take the western side of the Mississippi up LA1?

For H61 I already have found the Port Hudson national cemetery and historic site, the Saint Francisville Market Hall and Woodville town square (Karen loves souvenir shopping).

What interesting things can we find either route?

Thanks in advance.....

 

[Onomea]

Can't offer advice/suggestions as I don't know the area, Kiwi, but wishing Karen and you a wonderful return trip to the USA!

 

[Marshwheeling]

Most people I know who poke around there are looking for the blues. Somewhere in that neighborhood is the crossroads where Robert Johnson met the devil and came away with a mastery of the blues. Never been there myself, but it should be easily researched.
The Civil War battlefield park at Vicksburg is well worth a visit.

 

[lawandorder]

One of the highlights of the Vicksburg Battlefield is the USS Cairo. It is an Eads class ironclad commissioned in Jan. 1862 and sunk on a sortie to clear mines on the Yazoo. It struck a torpedo(mine) on December 12 1862 and sunk rapidly in 12 minutes with no casualties.

The wreck was located in 1956 by Edwin Bearss and others. In late 1964 the ship was raised in sections, partially restored and put on display at the Vicksburg battlefield. It had sunk so fast that most of the crews belongings, arms and equipment were intact.

Mr. Edwin C. Bearss worked for the National Park Service from 1955 until 1995 retiring as the Services Chief Historian. A great man.

 

[steelslaver]

Go west young make go west.

 

[Maddog 521]

WC Handy Museum — Beale Street

This is worth a stop if you get close to Memphis.

The Blues is always the Blues.

 

[Maddog 521]

Here too

Music history
A crossroads tribute in Clarksdale, where blues guitarist Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil

Clarksdale has been historically significant in the history of the blues. The Mississippi Blues Trail places interpretative markers for historic sites such as Clarksdale's Riverside Hotel, where Bessie Smith died following an auto accident on Highway 61. The Riverside Hotel is just one of many historical blues sites in Clarksdale.[16] Early supporters of the effort to preserve Clarksdale's musical legacy included the award-winning photographer and journalist Panny Mayfield, Living Blues magazine founder Jim O'Neal, and attorney Walter Thompson, father of sports journalist Wright Thompson. In 1995, Mt. Zion Memorial Fund founder Skip Henderson, a vintage guitar dealer from New Brunswick, New Jersey and friend of Delta Blues Museum founder Sid Graves, purchased the Illinois Central Railroad passenger depot to save it from planned demolition. With the help of local businessman Jon Levingston, as well as the Delta Council, Henderson received a US$1.279 million grant from the federal government to restore the passenger depot. These redevelopment funds were then transferred on the advice of Clarksdale's City attorney, Hunter Twiford, to Coahoma County, in order to establish a tourism locale termed "Blues Alley", after a phrase coined by then Mayor, Henry Espy. The popularity of the Delta Blues Museum and the growth of the Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival and Juke Joint Festivals have provided an economic boost to the city.

 

[glenwolde]

The B.B King Museum in Indianola is most excellent. He's buried there. There's also a Muppet/Jim Henson museum in Leland, his birthplace, for a bit of variety.

If you're on the west side of the Mississippi you're not in the Delta....just sayin'

 

[max]

Lots of blues museums in most small towns. The museum in Clarksdale is very impressive. If you go to Vicksburg and I highly recommend touring the battlefield, eat at a place called Rusty's. Best fried pickles I ever ate and good sweet tea also.

If you get to Memphis, Beale Street is worth a visit also.

 

[Tom S.]

You had to know this was coming:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIgPvVw_9YE[/ame]

 

[ispcapt]

Most of the blues area is north of Vicksburg towards the Clarksdale MS area. Altho you can find some local places to catch some blues.
30 miles north of Baton Rouge is St Francisville LA. Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site is there and a nice tour of the house and grounds.
Outside of St Francisville is Angola Prison. There's a nice tour of the old prison buildings and execution room. Angola has an interesting past. Do a bit of research becoming and the tour will fill in the information.
South and west of Baton Rouge you'll get into real Cajun country. Other than Avery Island (Tabasco sauce) and bird sanctuary there's not a lot of tourist things but the area is unique. Also a good area to find Cajun-Zydeco music. Try around the Breaux Bridge-Henderson area for music halls. Whiskey River Landing use to be excellent and very unique for Zydeco but the original location was destroyed and we haven't been to the new location since it moved.
South of Baton Rouge along the river there are numerous plantation tours. Each plantation is unique depending on what operation was run there, ie, rice, sugar cane, etc. The most famous that most people see pictures is Oak Alley outside of Vacherie LA. Laurel Plantation is also a good tour. Some plantation houses are open for bed and breakfast.
From Baton Rouge you're only an hour + drive into New Orleans. That's an entirely different area and too many things to list here. There are books written on things to see and do in New Orleans.
You don't say when you're coming to the area. I would not come from the months of May to Sept. The heat and humidity can be miserable if you're not use to living in that condition. It's not a good tourist season time.

 

[glowe]

I am not from the area, but traveled extensively with work and pleasure trips to the region. About the only specific thing you mentioned was music, so helping with an itinerary is best served with some ideas of what your interests are?

Music trip should include Memphis down to New Orleans. Blues and jazz is a big part of both cities. Beale Street in Memphis and French Quarter in New Orleans.

Nothing bad to say about Baton Rouge, but it does not seem to be a great music or cultural city. Great town on the Mississippi, but hard to find significant things to visit. New Orleans is much more interesting, from the French Quarter, mansions on St. Charles Avenue, the river, the grave yards (yes they bury above ground there), to to War of 1812 with a visit to Chalmette Battlefield (Battle of New Orleans) where Stonewall Jackson defeated the British.

There are quite a few Civil War Battlefields along the Mississippi from Memphis to New Orleans to explore just for starters. Side trip to Cajun Country is an option, with Baton Rouge and points south just over an hour from New Orleans.

Cemeteries in the New Orleans area are like none other. All buried above ground, some in lavish tombs. French Quarter example is St. Louis No 1 where the "Voodoo Queen" Marie Laveau was interred. The most striking might be the Metairie Cemetery. where you can find the original grave of Jefferson Davis.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

 

[dmn57]

If you get around Memphis I recommend a stop at Sun Studio. Very unassuming but a lot of things came together there in the 1950's. When I visited I felt like I was hanging with the spirits of Sam, Elvis, Johnny, Carl, Roy and the rest. I'd don't get too excited about much these days but it kinda gave me chills.

 

[ispcapt]

Agree with glowe on music locations. Also in NOLA is Frenchman St with lots of good music venues.
Above ground burial is common in southern LA not just limited to NOLA. That's because of the land being at a low elevation and the water table in that area.

War of 1812 with a visit to Chalmette Battlefield (Battle of New Orleans) where Stonewall Jackson defeated the British.

It was Andrew Jackson, not Stonewall Jackson. Stonewall (Thomas Jackson) wasn't born yet when the Battle of New Orleans occurred.

 

[glowe]

. . . It was Andrew Jackson, not Stonewall Jackson. Stonewall (Thomas Jackson) wasn't born yet when the Battle of New Orleans occurred.

Sorry, I was there, but still get those two names mixed up.