Day 8: 108 Miles
Starting location: Jeff Busby Campground– 45 degrees
Ending location: LeFleurs Bluff State Park– 28 degrees
Major Stop: Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
Weather: Cold, windy, rainy and cloudy
My goal today was to visit the Mississippi Civil Rights museum in Jackson. With the holidays, the museum had closed New Year’s Day; and, would closed on Mondays (tomorrow). So I wanted to see it today to not miss it. With 103 miles to drive to get to it, I needed an early start to ensure arriving by opening time (11am). I had been warned that visiting takes a few hours.
Trace Sights on the Way
So, leaving Jeff Busby, here are a few of the sights along the 103 miles.
First, it seems the names of the places along the Trace seem to stick even after the Trace was no longer important. So, I had to include this sign for a dear friend.
To stop you from slamming on your brakes, the National Park Service has signs along the road that tell you a stop is coming up in either 1/2 mile or 1 mile. It’s not consistent. However, the entrances are all marked with signs like this one.
Land Ownership and Decline of the Trace
The ownership of the lands that the Trace traversed was primarily Native American. This map shows the ownership during the Traces main usage time period with two tribes owning a great deal of the area. Fortunately, the road was managed peacefully via treaties.
The invention of steam engines used in river boats and the changing postal route ended the use of the Trace. With steam engine boats, the Kaintucks did not need to walk back; and, this sign talks about the postal side of it.
Pearls in the River?
I’ll let the sign do the talking.
No Easy Lunches!
The Two Museums
We arrived at the museum just after opening; and were fortunate to find parking on the street out front. I left Dottie in Clarice without any temperature worries since it was so cold. I even turned the heat on for her! Pulling my coat up over my head to block the rain, I made my way to the entrance. Luckily, it turns out that Sundays are free museum days! Bonus!
Two museums are attached to each other. They are The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Mississippi Museum of History. Collectively the site is called “The Two Museums”. I spent about three hours in Civil Rights section of the museum and about 1/2 hour on the history side.
Civil Rights Museum
The Civil Rights museum starts with a timeline of events when you first walk into the museum. Then as you exit the timeline, you come into a large circular area where several galleries start and end. These galleries are arranged by different periods of time and reflect different topics. Then as you walk through each gallery it is interactive with short video’s, in little rooms along the way. As a couple of examples, one of the rooms is a jail cell with a video about the Freedom riders and their incarceration. Another was a school room with a video about education rights. For those who want to know more, here is a link to the description of the galleries.
It is a very powerful and well done museum. If you ever get to Jackson, I highly recommend taking the time to see it. It was brutally honest and pulled no punches. While they allow you to take pictures, I really only took two during the timeline. For me, it was just too powerfully overwhelming to worry about capturing images. I will leave it here for today.