(Livingston, Ala.)—Meridian—Jackson—Vicksburg—(Monroe, La.). US 80.
Alabama Line to Louisiana Line, 157.7 m.
Alabama & Great Southern R.R. parallels route between the Alabama Line and Meridian, Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.R. between Meridian and Vicksburg.
Concrete roadbed two lanes wide, well marked.
Accommodations of all kinds.
US 80 runs across the center of the State through Mississippi’s three largest cities. It dips from the red clay hills on the east through the central prairie to climb again into the brown loam hills at Vicksburg. The only large stream crossed is the Pearl River at Jackson. The scene alternates between field and forest. Settlements are older in the western section. Meridian was insignificant at the outbreak of the War between the States; Jackson was small though the State capital; while Vicksburg was an important port on the Mississippi River. US 80 and US 11 (see Tour 8) are united through Meridian.
At 0 m. US 80 crosses the Mississippi Line 21 miles W. of Livingston, Ala., and winds through red clay hills, pine and hardwood forests, and gully-threatened fields with unpainted houses.
KEWANEE, 1.8 m. (150 pop.), is a sawmill and farm country hamlet, celebrated chiefly because it was the home of Chief Pushmataha. Pushmataha was the Choctaw who, by blocking Tecumseh’s scheme for uniting the Indians, saved the Southern whites from annihilation. He was a friend of Andrew Jackson, and is buried in the Congressional Cemetery at Washington (see ARCHEOLOGY AND INDIANS).
Left from Kewanee on a sand and clay road is WHYNOT, 8.3 m. (34 pop.), a backwoods farming settlement gradually acquiring improved roads and new fangled ideas from Meridian. “Why not?” is the native’s retort to the visitor’s query of how the community got its name.
TOOMSUBA (Ind., rolling horse), 6 m. (292 alt., 350 pop.), on the creek of the same name, had an active Ku Klux Klan unit during reconstruction days. The cut through which the road passes at 10.1 m. shows the red clay texture of the hilly soil and explains the poor landscape.
At 16.5 m. US 80 follows B St. to 26th Ave.
MERIDIAN, 19.1 m. (341 alt., 31,954 pop.) (see MERIDIAN).
Points of Interest: Industrial plants, Gypsy Queen’s Grave, Arboretum, and others.
At Meridian are the junctions with US 45 (see Tour 4), US 11 (see Tour 8), and State 39 (see Side Tour 4B).
The route continues on 26th Ave.; L. on 6th St.; R. on 5th St. (US 80).
West of Meridian US 80 winds through hills.
CHUNKY, 33.8 m. (312 alt., 268 pop.), is a sawmill town that takes its name from Chunky Creek, on which it is situated. Chunky is the Anglicized pronunciation of the name the Choctaw Indians gave to one of their games. It was the southernmost Choctaw town visited by Tecumseh in 1811 when he tried to unite all Indian tribes against the whites.
HICKORY, 39.7 m. (322 alt., 736 pop.), another sawmill town, was named for Andrew Jackson, “Old Hickory,” whose military road passed through the village. Jackson is supposed to have camped overnight in 1815 with his army on the banks of Pottoxchitto Creek just S. of the town.
NEWTON, 49.1 m. (412 alt., 2,011 pop.), the seat of Newton Co., is the largest town in the county. A trading center for the farmers of a wide area, it has a compact, modern business district and wide residential streets, shaded with live oaks. Here is CLARKE MEMORIAL COLLEGE, a private school of junior college rating, with modern brick buildings. In the Doolittle family cemetery is a CONFEDERATE CEMETERY with approximately 100 graves.
At Newton is the junction with State 15 (see Tour 12).
Between Newton and Lake the hills gradually flatten to gently rolling swells, and the intense redness of the clay soil is modified to a light lemon yellow, with fewer pine woods and more truck farms visible.
At 59.1 m. is LAKE (452 alt., 375 pop.).
Right from Lake on an unmarked graveled road to the PATRONS’ UNION CAMP GROUND, 2.2 m (R). The Lake Patrons’ Union, an outgrowth of the National Grange, has held annual sessions in August since its organization in 1874. The first meeting was called under a rude brush arbor, but after two assemblies had been held, the arbor was superseded by a pavilion built to seat a thousand people. The granges of Newton, Scott, Lauderdale, Neshoba, Jasper, Smith, Leake, and adjoining counties elect the directors. The August programs of the union are varied. There are reports of committees on agriculture, horticulture, education, and other subjects embracing almost every topic of interest to the people of the State, and the sessions have many distinguished visitors. The daily attendance has varied from 2,000 to 6,000.
Since 1893 for several weeks prior to the August meetings, Teachers Normal Institutes have been held on the union property, with well-known educators serving as instructors.
On this same road is CONEHATTA, 8.8 m. (152 pop.). The CONEHATTA DAY SCHOOL FOR INDIANS, under the supervision of the Government agent at Philadelphia, is the center of an Indian community of one-mule farms typical of the communities in this “Indian country” of Mississippi. The settlement is made up almost entirely of Choctaw, descendants of the Indians who made this their home after the signing of the Dancing Rabbit Treaty in 1830. A number of the Conehatta women and girls supplement the inadequate family income by making and selling baskets of dyed split cane. The Conehatta baskets are perhaps the most attractive in the State. Few tribal rites are practiced, the majority of the Indians being either Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, or Presbyterians. An outstanding feature of early Indian life that is retained is the bright-colored dress of the women. The men dress much as do the neighboring white farmers, but they are easily distinguished by their long hair and dusky color. The school is carrying on the Americanization process: although the girls are taught basket weaving and bead work along with their domestic science and basic subjects, Indian ball has been replaced with top spinning, marble shooting, and basketball. The Indians are shy and reticent.
At 62.7 m. US 80 enters the eastern end of the BIENVILLE NATIONAL FOREST. This forest, established in 1934, covers an area of 382,820 acres in Scott, Smith, and Jasper Counties; in shape it is an irregular, squat L, extending W. approximately 20 miles from this point, and N. and S. more than 35 miles. The forest has not yet attained impressive height, but the shortleaf pine is restocking naturally and quickly.
FOREST, 68 m. (481 alt., 2,176 pop.), is the seat of Scott Co. and the headquarters of the Bienville Forest supervisor. The town is so named because of the dense pine growth which once covered the site.
Here is the junction with State 35 (see Tour 16).
MORTON, 79.4 m. (463 alt., 955 pop.), is the home of one of the largest sawmills between Newton and Jackson, and the shipping station for bentonite dug from a mine 18 miles SW.
Left from Morton on an unmarked graveled road to forks, 1.7 m.
1. Right here to the ROOSEVELT STATE PARK, 2.2 m., named for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it is on the western edge of the Bienville Forest in a 494-acre tract of natural forest and flower growth. The park includes several springs that have a combined capacity of around 3,000 gallons of water per day. There are rustic, overnight cabins, a clubhouse, a native stone lodge, and bath houses. A dam creates a 125-acre lake stocked with fish and used also for swimming. Foot trails for hiking and bridle paths for horseback, as well as camping and picnicking facilities, are available.
2. Left here on a graveled road, keeping R. at every fork for 14.9 m.; L. to BENTONITE MINE, 15.2 m. (open by permission from office, 8:30 to 5 weekdays), utilizing the largest bentonite deposit in the State. The stratum averages three feet in thickness and underlies 100 acres. Because of its nearness to the surface the mine has the appearance of a great opened pit. In 1934 the State Geological Survey made a detailed examination of the field, which had been noted three years earlier, and in 1936 the Attapulgus Clay Co. began development of the mineral. The product is a grayish, clay-like mineral, or group of minerals, consisting of hydro aluminum silicates and alkalies. Bentonite mined here is shipped to Jackson where it is processed in the Filtrol plant (see Tour 5, Sec. b).
At 80.7 US 80 crosses the western boundary of the Bienville National Forest.
PELAHATCHIE (Ind., hurricane creek), 89. m. (409 alt., 1,599 pop.), is named for the creek it borders.
Between Pelahatchie and Brandon the highway runs past fine stands of pine and hardwood trees.
At 99.1 m. (L) is the CAPT. JAMES L. McCASKILL HOME (private), one of the few ante-bellum homes left in this section. A long one-story house with square columns, it was built in 1830 and was originally an inn and stagecoach stop. Because it was occupied by a Northern family during the War between the States, it escaped the fate of other homes in the vicinity. General Sherman made his headquarters here.
BRANDON, 99.6 m. (484 alt., 692 pop.), is an old town, rebuilt since its destruction during the War between the States. It is said that Brandon has produced more State governors, senators, and representatives of distinction than any other town its size in Mississippi. The town was named for Gerard Brandon, who served as Governor of the State from 1825 to 1831. The A. J. McLAURIN HOME (private) was at different times the home of two governors, Lowry and McLaurin. It stands 100 yds. S. of US 80 at the W. end of town on a spacious lawn shaded by cedars. The house is of frame construction, painted white, and has a two-story colonnaded portico rising in front. By the door in the living room there was for many years a dark stain. Here, during the war, a Northern officer was slain as he answered a call at the door. In the attic is a charred spot, marking the attempted burning of the house by a young slave girl trying to escape. At PURNELL SPRINGS both Confederate and Union soldiers camped during the war.
US 80, W. of Brandon, slopes gradually downward toward the Pearl River bottoms.
At 109.3 m. is the junction with a graveled road.
Left on this road to the new MISSISSIPPI HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE, 5.6 m. (L), a $5,000,000 plant including 78 buildings. It is the handsomest and best equipped of Mississippi’s eleemosynary institutions. The hospital plant covers 3,300 acres and was completed in 1935. In appearance it is more of a village than an institution, with roads passing fruit and pecan orchards and well-spaced buildings (none more than two stories high) of the Colonial Williamsburg type of architecture. In reality there are two plants, one for white patients and the other for Negroes, but no distinction is evident in the type of buildings, and all patients receive similar care. Each race has its own chapel. Because of the space available the patients of each race are segregated according to their types of disease. All non-violent patients march to a central dining room for meals served cafeteria style; most of the food is produced on the institution’s farm, which is worked by patients. Treatment includes hydrotherapy, physio-therapy, and occupational therapy; one of the most successful aids for the women has proved to be a well-equipped beauty parlor. The landscaping, like the buildings, is free from institutional aspects. There are an artificial lake and several miles of shrubbery-lined walks and drives. The site was once the Rankin Co. Penal Farm.
Between Brandon and Jackson the highway is bordered with small but neat truck farms. Back of the truck farms (R) but not visible from the highway is the RANKIN COUNTY NATURAL GAS FIELD, a recently exploited source of much potential wealth.
At 110.1 m. is the junction with a graveled road.
Right on this road to the KNOX GLASS MANUFACTURING COMPANY, 1.9 m. (R), (visited by permission), the only plant of its kind in the State. Here bottles of all shapes and sizes are manufactured for distribution to all parts of the United States. The plant is a modern building with recreational facilities provided for its employees.
At 110.6 m. is the junction (L) with US 49 (see Tour 7), which joins US 80 to cross a levee running through the second bottoms of the Pearl River and over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, 111.5 m. The river limits Jackson on the E. From the bridge are visible the few skyscrapers of which Mississippi can boast.
At 111.5 m. US 80 follows E. Silas Brown St. over bridge; R. on S. State St.; L. on South St. to S. Gallatin St.
JACKSON, 112.7 m. (294 alt., 48,282 pop.) (see JACKSON).
Points of Interest. Old Capitol, New Capitol, Livingston Park and Zoo, Hinds County Courthouse, Millsaps College, Belhaven College, Battlefield Park, and others.
At Jackson is the junction with US 51 (see Tour 5), and US 49 (see Tour 7).
The route continues on S. Gallatin St.; L. on W. Capitol St. (US 80).
On US 80, Jackson, as it does on all the highways running through it, marks an end and a beginning. Over the section between Jackson and Vicksburg was fought one of the bitterest and most decisive series of battles in the War between the States. Over this ground the Confederates were gradually pushed by Grant to the earthwork defenses of Vicksburg, the last link binding the two halves of the Confederacy.
US 80 crosses the bridge over the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.R. at the western city limits of Jackson. At 117.4 m. (R) is the entrance to the JACKSON COUNTRY CLUB ($1.10 greens fee), of which the 18-hole course is the scene of Mississippi’s major tournaments. At 119.3 m. (R) is the CRISMORLAND ROSE GARDEN, a lovely country garden and nursery typical of the showy suburban places that contrast with the small truck farms along the road.
At 119.5 is the entrance to LAKEWOOD CEMETERY, in appearance more a park than a cemetery because bronze tablets set flush with the carpeting grass take the place of grave monuments. The cemetery, opened in 1927, occupies a 200-acre tract, 35 acres of which are developed. A pleasing conceit is a heart-shaped lake, divided by the graveled drive.
The highway W. of the cemetery is bordered with small truck farms, separated by hedges of honeysuckle and Cherokee roses, with an occasional clump of cedars denoting an older settlement.
At 121.3 m. (L) is the CLINTON CEMETERY, marking the eastern limits of CLINTON (324 alt., 912 pop.), a small college town. Long before Mississippi became a State, Clinton was an Indian agency, known as Mount Dexter. About 1823 Walter Leake, formerly a Mississippi Territorial judge, who later became the third Governor of the State, bought land here and later erected a home called Mount Salus. The white settlement that grew up around his home was called Mount Salus. The first land office and the first post office in the State were in this place. The land office was established to dispose of lands acquired in 1820 from the Choctaw Indians by the Treaty of Doak’s Stand. The post office was Governor Leake’s “little letter-box.” The spring waters at Mount Salus and the town’s situation on the Natchez Trace made it popular as an early health resort. State roads to Vicksburg and Jackson were opened in 1820 and 1826.
In the fall of 1828 the citizens of Mount Salus changed the name of the village to Clinton in honor of De Witt Clinton, then Governor of New York. In the same year the town narrowly missed selection as the county seat, the honor falling to Raymond, and in the next year missed by one vote being selected as the State capital. The deciding vote was cast by Maj. John R. Peyton of Raymond, Clinton’s rival town.
The Clinton & Vicksburg R.R. (see TRANSPORTATION), the second oldest in the State, was incorporated in 1831. In 1835 the citizens had to organize hastily against a threatened raid of Murrell’s desperadoes. In 1834 a Masonic lodge was organized, becoming the parent lodge to those of both Jackson and Vicksburg. Grant and Sherman each established headquarters here. Sherman pillaged, but there was little burning, and the two colleges were left unharmed. Immediately after the War between the States Clinton was shipping 20,000 bales of cotton a year, handling more than any market between Vicksburg and Meridian. In 1875 occurred the Clinton race riot, one of the bloodiest of the Reconstruction upheavals, in which white citizens rising against Negro supremacy gained the ascendancy, with the assistance of volunteer groups of armed men from Jackson and Vicksburg. The number of Negroes killed has been estimated at 50.
At 122 m. (L) is the entrance to MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE, the Baptist school that has made Clinton a seat of learning since 1826. Next to Jefferson College it is the oldest school for boys in the State. It was founded as Hampstead (incorporated as Hamstead) Academy in 1826, but the year after its name was changed by an act of the Legislature to Mississippi Academy, and in 1830 to Mississippi College. The founders in changing the name hoped that it would become the State university, and this hope was realized to the extent of State recognition and support from the “seminary lands.” Failure to achieve permanent State support, however, caused Clinton citizens to turn the school over to the Presbyterian Synod in 1842. The Presbyterians gave it back in 1850, and when it appeared that the school was about to become extinct, the Mississippi Baptist State Convention rescued it and has cared for it ever since.
The period of enthusiasm just after the Baptists took over the school resulted in the building of the COLLEGE CHAPEL, the only ante-bellum structure on the campus. The Baptists had succeeded in obtaining a $100,000 endowment fund; then in 1858 a building fund was raised, and from its $30,000 was created this Corinthian style temple. It is a square building constructed of red brick and stucco with a slate roof. The capitals, railings, interior columns, and other ornaments are of cast iron. The stuccoed ground floor is given to classrooms, but the chapel itself is lofty enough to include a balcony around three sides of the chamber. Particularly attractive are the triple-hung sash windows, fully 20 feet high. When the War between the States began, the Mississippi College Rifles was organized from the student body. The endowment decreased in value, and the school would have been sold for debt had it not been for the aid Mrs. Adelia Hillman gave in raising funds in the North. For a long period after 1877 the college faculty worked on a contingent basis instead of with guaranteed salaries. It has produced many of the outstanding men of the State, including three governors: Brown, Longino, and H. L. Whitfield.
Closely associated with Mississippi College in spirit as well as in organization is HILLMAN COLLEGE, the oldest existing school for girls in Mississippi. Almost hidden in a quiet tree-shaded campus, the brick and frame buildings are of no definite design. The school was begun by the Central Baptist Association in 1853 as the Central Female Institute, in 1891 it was renamed “in honor of those who have done so much for it, Dr. Walter Hillman and Mrs. Adelia M. Hillman, his wife.” For 16 years it was under the direct control of the Baptist Association; it is said to have been the only educational institution in the South that held classes uninterruptedly throughout the War between the States. Even when the campaigns against Vicksburg brought the roar of the contending armies’ cannon to the quiet campus the institute was enrolling a hundred pupils annually and was graduating classes ranging from nine in 1860 to two in 1865. Although the school remained open during the conflict and was unharmed by Federal troops, it was heavily in debt at the close of the war. In 1869 the Baptist Association turned the property titles over to the school’s president, Dr. Hillman. It has since been operated privately, but has retained its denominational character. Dr. Hillman remained as president until his death in 1894.
At one time the school possessed the best natural history museum in Mississippi; it now shares science laboratories with Mississippi College.
At Mississippi College is the junction with the graveled Raymond road.
Left on the Raymond Road and on the westernmost of twin hills S. of Mississippi College are the ruins of the old MOSS HOME, 0.6 m. (R), formerly the home of Col. Raymond Robinson. The crumbling ruins are of a beautiful red brick, and enough is left to give a vivid idea of the original structure, built before 1810. Much of the original roof still protects the broken brick walls. The design of the structure, of somewhat hybrid type, is based upon Spanish and English Georgian traditions. This is notable in its H-shaped plan, raised basement story, the high central section with its low-pitched hip roof and tall flanking chimneys. The secondary roof of similar construction once covered the lower wings and deeply recessed front and rear porches. The porches, now gone, were in the form of loggias between the wings. At the eaves of the roof a heavy wooden cornice with modillion brackets is impaled with cut nails upon hewn joists and rafters. The great central hall on the second or principal floor, with its large window openings and graceful arched doorways, flanked by small half-length side lights, opens onto the porches. These, in turn, give access to the two rooms on each side. Each of the side chambers has corner fireplaces. The dining room, scullery and other services were on the ground floor. Facing N. on the crest of the hill, the house was originally approached by a drive crossing the ravine and circling the knoll. It is guarded and half hidden by two tall cedars on each side of what was once the entrance staircase. In 1818 Andrew Jackson, then land commissioner at Clinton, was a guest in this home.
Here the wealthy widow of Judge Caldwell (see below) was found murdered shortly after her re-marriage.
Between the Moss home and the Raymond road, on the other hill, are the RUINS OF GOVERNOR LEAKE’S HOME, Mount Salus, facing the lake across the road. When built Mount Salus was the first brick house in the county. It was burned in 1920.
In the middle of the road between the hill and the lake is the SITE OF THE CALDWELL-PEYTON DUEL. This duel, taking place in 1829, was the result of a quarrel between Judge Isaac Caldwell of Clinton and Maj. John R. Peyton of Raymond. As a member of the State legislature Peyton cast the deciding vote which established Jackson as State capital over Clinton. His action so enraged Caldwell that he challenged Peyton to a duel. Both men escaped uninjured, but in 1835 Caldwell fought a duel with Samuel Gwin, this time to defend the honor of his friend, George Poindexter. Gwin had hissed a speech of Poindexter’s at a free-drinking inaugural levee for Governor Lynch. Caldwell and Gwin were each armed with six pistols and were advancing upon each other as they fired. Caldwell died that day; Gwin lingered in agony a year.
US 80, W. of Clinton, passes through cuts showing a pebbly clay outcropping. The land is not heavily wooded; the homes are poor. An occasional Negro is seen hoeing or plowing in fields which are separated by clumps of trees. There are pastoral landscapes, and at intervals groups of fine oaks.
At BOLTON, 130.2 m. (216 alt., 441 pop.), the highway runs through an avenue of water oaks that shade the residences on each side. Bolton exemplifies the quiet, shadowy, old inland hamlet found in the prairie belt W. of Jackson. It has three steam cotton gins.
West of Bolton good farms lie on both sides of the highway, white folks’ tractors alternating with Negroes’ mules in the work. Fresh eggs and cool buttermilk can be bought at the roadside farmhouses.
At 139.2 m. is EDWARDS (226 alt., 456 pop.).
1. Left from Edwards on a graveled road, the old Edwards-Bolton highway, to CHAMPION’S HILL, 44 m., situated at the point where the middle Raymond road intersects the old highway. The old highway extends over the crest of the hill, an elevation 70 feet above the surrounding country. On the crest of this hill on May 16, 1863, Confederate General Pemberton’s left wing was placed, facing E. against the far larger Union Army under Grant. The occasion was momentous. Grant was in possession of Jackson and was moving toward Vicksburg. The three divisions of Pemberton’s army were trying frantically to unite with Johnston. Grant moved in between. South of Champion’s Hill Pemberton’s army stretched three miles, 15,000 Confederates fighting desperately to save Vicksburg from destruction, but it was for the hill that Grant and Pemberton fought. One of the most brilliant movements on either side was the charge of Cockrell’s brigade of Bowen’s division, preparing the way for the advance of the Confederate front to beyond the crest of the hill. This movement was accomplished in the evening of May 16, following an afternoon of steady contest for possession. The weight of the Federal forces, increased by fresh divisions moving up from Raymond, however, finally turned the Confederate wing and Pemberton retreated across the Big Black River. The Confederate loss was 324 killed, 3,269 wounded or captured, and all artillery. The Federal loss was 410 killed, 2,031 wounded or captured. One division of Confederate troops, consisting of almost 4,000 men, was cut off from the rest of the army and forced to flee in a southeasterly direction beyond Jackson. Grant’s victory was the decisive stroke of the campaign. The Confederates were scattered and the Federals were rapidly nearing Vicksburg, their objective. The evening after the battle Grant received Halleck’s order, sent five days before, telling him on no account whatever to undertake such a campaign. Grant could read the order with calmness; he had staked everything and had won.
2. Left from Edwards on a country road leading across the wooden bridge over the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.R. tracks to the TILGHMAN MONUMENT, 3 m. The monument is on the L. just beyond a church on the R. The stone is not 50 feet from the road and is easily visible, but is on the other side of a bordering gully. A path leads down into the gully and up to the railed enclosure. The road has every appearance of age, winding through a cut below the level of the fields, bordered with trees. A single small cedar shades the monument, whose inscription reads: “Lloyd Tilghman, Brigadier General C.S.A., Commander First Brigade, Loring’s Division. Killed here the afternoon of May 18, 1863, near the close of the battle of Champion’s Hill.” Tilghman died defending the ford across Baker’s Creek while the Confederates retreated. The story is that he was shot by a sharpshooter from the HENRY COKER HOUSE, 3.3 m., on the next hill. It is a one-and-a-half-story country house, painted brown, with a central hall and a small four-columned porch. At the four corners are giant magnolia trees. Along the drive in front are cedars with moss hanging from the limbs. The house is on a knoll. In its front door and jambs are bullet holes made during the battle on Champion’s Hill, three miles NE. across the hills and ravines.
The SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE, 140.2 m. (L), a Negro college known as Mount Beulah, was established in 1875 on the plantation of the Cook family. Its 1937 enrollment is 222. The school structures, set on a hill just off the highway are grouped about a white, square frame building two stories in height, housing the administrative offices and the classrooms; the boarding students live in small one-story frame structures scattered over the campus. At the school the highway flattens out into the bottoms of the Big Black River.
At 145.3 m. is the junction with the old road across the Big Black River.
Left on the old road leading under the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.R. to an old BRIDGE, 0.3 m., across the Big Black River. Near this concrete railroad bridge the Battle of the Big Black was fought, confirming the outcome of Champion’s Hill. The Confederates were routed in panic, losing the fortifications of the bridge and 18 guns, in addition to 1,751 men taken captive by Grant. After the battle Pemberton concentrated his remaining forces in the bluff hills encircling Vicksburg.
US 80 climbs into the bluff hills immediately W. of the Big Black River. The cuts through which the new road passes are in some places 25 feet deep, showing brittle loess. The highway runs through a stretch of large and varied trees to come suddenly at 154.7 m. upon a spider web of intersecting roads—the ENTRANCE TO THE VICKSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK (see VICKSBURG).
US 80 follows Clay St. to Washington St.
VICKSBURG, 155.5 m. (206 alt., 22,943 pop.) (see VICKSBURG).
Points of Interest. Warren Co. Courthouse, a number of ante-bellum, siege-marked homes, and others.
Here is the junction with US 61 (see Tour 3).
Left from Vicksburg on Clay St. to Cherry St.; R. on Cherry St.; L. on a local blacktop road that cuts an intricately winding path through the hills and bluffs of this section. The landscape is very rugged, with dense forests and undergrowth throughout, and contrives to give a scene of primeval beauty. The U. S. WATERWAYS EXPERIMENT STATION (guides at Administration Building, 9-4 weekdays), 4.6 m., is a hydraulic laboratory installed for the purpose of building and operating small-scale models of the Mississippi and other rivers. The laboratory is on a Federal reservation containing 245 acres. In the valley at the entrance is the Administration Building, flanked with auxiliary buildings containing special laboratories, shop facilities, and warehouses. Back of these is an 80-acre lake, while spread in front across the valley are miniature reproductions of sections of rivers, bays, and harbors.
Beyond this valley a winding road up a steep wooded hill leads to a plateau that was levelled to provide a 100-acre experimental field. Here larger models are in operation. Among them and probably of greatest interest is the Mississippi River model, the largest of this type in the world. It represents a 600-mile stretch of the river—from Helena, Ark., to Donaldsonville, La.—including the entire main river channel and the backwater areas of its tributaries. The model, like all the others, is constructed of concrete and is covered with fluted screened wire that represents roughness such as trees and undergrowth or anything that hinders the flow of water. The model is 1,055 ft. long, has an average width of 167 ft., and covers 111,600 sq. ft., which represents 10,250,000 acres of the actual Mississippi area. One cubic foot per second of water flowing through the channel of the model is equivalent to 1,500,000 cubic feet per second in nature. The water is introduced into each of the tributaries by means of V-notch weir boxes, several of which are also scattered over the model to simulate run-offs from rainfall.
In seven small houses are gauges recording the height of the water surface in the models. Telephones installed in these houses enable all operators to keep in touch with each other. An automatic timing device gives a signal with the passing of each “day,” which requires five minutes and 24 seconds on this model. The purpose of this work is to test flood control devices, such as cut-offs, floodways, and storage reservoirs. This is carried out by running water into the model in which have been constructed proposed levees, dikes, or dredge cuts in order to determine if these constructions will produce the desired results. Two full-time photographers make pictures during these tests which need detailed study.
HIGHWAY THROUGH LOESS BLUFFS TO VICKSBURG
The station studies problems not only of the United States but also of foreign countries. The model of Maracaibo Bay in Venezuela, South America, shows the Pacific Ocean and the channel from the ocean to the bay through which heavily loaded oil barges must travel and are sometimes caught. The purpose of the study is to find a means of keeping the channel open without periodic dredging. In this model there is an apparatus that reproduces actual tides, and a machine that reproduces the waves, both of which are electrically operated and controlled. Thirty-five minutes of operation in this study of tides equals a 24-hour day. The model is on the plateau but is housed in a building 200 feet square.
The route continues L. on Washington St. (US 80-61). US 80 crosses the VICKSBURG TOLL BRIDGE, 157.7 m. (cars $1.25, passengers 25¢, pedestrians free) over the Mississippi River. A cantilever type and through truss spans, the bridge was designed and constructed by Harrington, Howard and Ash of Kansas City. It was opened for traffic in 1930. The river, the boundary line between Mississippi and Louisiana, is 73 miles E. of Monroe, La.