Top Things to do in Mississippi
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The 10 Best History Museums in Mississippi, United States
From 24-hour casinos, upscale shopping and luxurious spas in Tunica to the Civil War sites in Vicksburg to the lush golf courses, beaches and upscale casinos in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi offers visitors a wide range of vacation experiences. Vacationers to Mississippi can choose from a diverse group of destinations and activities. On the Gulf Coast in Biloxi and Gulfport, casino gaming, big name entertainment shows, deep-sea fishing and golf, are popular pastimes. In Vicksburg, the Vicksburg National Cemetery and Civil War sites draw many visitors. In historic Natchez, you can take a scenic drive on the Natchez Trace Parkway or visit Frogmore Plantation, one of eight plantations originally owned by a wealthy Natchez planter. For an urban experience, Jackson, dubbed the “City with Soul” has over 50 nightclubs featuring Soul, Jazz, Blues, Rock and other musical genres. Tunica offers great casinos, golf and big name entertainers such as Bonnie Rait, Smokey Robinson and George Jones. Golfers, rejoice! Mississippi has more than 150 golf courses. Among the high-profile courses on everybody’s must play list are The Links at Cottonwoods and Tunica National Golf Tennis Club in Tunica and Grand Bear Golf Club in Saucier and The Bridges Golf Club at Hollywood Casino. Families visiting Mississippi fall in love with the heaping portions of Southern hospitality. Family-oriented activities are plentiful in Mississippi whether it’s enjoying the beaches on the Gulf Coast, visiting the home of Elvis Presley in Tupelo or riding a huge paddlewheeler on the Mississippi River.
Restaurants in Mississippi
1. U.S.S. Cairo Museum
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 1,481 reviews
Tour the first boat to be sunk by a torpedo.
Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States
My wife and I have visited Vicksburg National Military Park on other occasions so we weren't terribly disappointed when we realized on our most recent trip that the USS Cairo Museum was closed because of the COVID pandemic. Of course, visitors can park in the parking lot and stroll around one of the first American ironclad warships built at the beginning of the Civil War. Inside or outside, the Cairo is an impressive site. After participating in the capture of Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in June 1862, it was sunk in December 1862 while clearing mines for the attack on Haines Bluff on the Yazoo River. It was the first ship ever to be sunk by a mine remotely detonated by hand. Over the years, the ship was forgotten and slowed covered by silt and sand. It was found in 1956 and salvaged from the bottom of the river in 1965. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, the Cairo was opened as a museum in a shelter on the tour road near the Vicksburg National Cemetery in the Vicksburg National Military Park in November 1980. The recovery of artifacts from the ship revealed a treasure trove of weapons, ammunition, naval stores and personal gear of the sailors who served on board. Externally, visitors can see one of the cannons on the side of the Cairo and the framework for the paddlewheels.
2. Eudora Welty House and Garden
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 121 reviews
For seventy-six years, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eudora Welty lived and wrote in her Jackson home at 1119 Pinehurst Street. Restored by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History after her death in 2001, the house is open for tours.
Reviewed By 530JulieB530 - New Orleans, United States
I loved every moment of my time here. I had read the book "One Writer's Garden" and it was the perfect stage-setter for my visit. The docent was knowledgeable and gave a good tour. The tour begins with a video which was very helpful, and I returned to the Visitor Center after the tour. It helped that I was there on a gorgeous April day. The camellias were almost done, but azaleas were beautiful and roses just beginning to bloom.
3. Tupelo Veteran's Museum
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 61 reviews
Reviewed By gjdJLN - Joplin, United States
We stopped at the Veteran's Museum while traveling through Tupelo on vacation. It was a pleasant surprise to find the wide variety of items on display, spanning many years of our country's history. Unique items were enhanced by the stories shared by Tony Lute. His dedication to preserving history and honoring veterans is evident in the fine displays in the museum. Well worth the trip off the interstate to learn more about history.
4. Old Tishomingo County Courthouse Museum
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 13 reviews
The Old Tishomingo County Courthouse is a striking example of Romanesque Architecture with Second Empire style influences. This courthouse is the reason why Iuka is known widely as the “Marriage Capital” with over 44,000 marriage licenses issued in the years when Mississippi had no three-day waiting period for licenses. The courtroom on the second floor is much the same as it was when John M. Stone, a resident of Iuka and Mississippi’s longest serving Governor, supervised its construction and when the county’s first legal hanging happened here years ago. The courthouse was built in 1870 and is on the National Register of Historic Places; it is a Mississippi Historical Landmark. Strategically situated in Iuka only a few miles from the AL and TN borders on Hwy 72 between Huntsville and Memphis and minutes away from the Tennessee River and Natchez Trace, it is poised to be a tourist gateway and welcome center into Northeast MS.
5. Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 26 reviews
The Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library contains 15,000 linear feet of correspondence, research notes, published monographs, artifacts, photographs, scrapbooks, and memorabilia, by and about the United States’ 18th president, covering his early life, Civil War triumphs, presidency, and beyond. The 21,000 sq foot facility includes a museum dedicated to U. S. Grant.
Reviewed By 568matf - Westfield, United States
In the library. Some artifacts you can’t see elsewhere. Grant was much shorter than I would have imagined. It would be neater if there were more discussion of his post-presidency controversy, but hey - it’s a presidential museum. Worth a stop. Also had a really neat Lincoln exhibit. We were told it’s the largest private collection of Lincoln items.
6. The GI Museum
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 5 reviews
Reviewed By CindyMcDon
While on vacation in biloxi we saw a sign promoting the GI museum so we decided to visit. Mitchell was the volunteer and he provided additional details behind several of the artifacts on display. For a smaller museum, it was packed with interesting war-time relics and articles that were nicely arranged and easy to read. Could spend hours examining in depth but we just did a quick looksee. Will return in the future when we have more time.
7. Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 194 reviews
The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum shares the stories of a Mississippi movement that changed the nation. The museum promotes a greater understanding of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and its impact by highlighting the strength and sacrifices of its peoples. Visitors will witness the freedom struggle in eight interactive galleries that show the systematic oppression of black Mississippians and their fight for equality that transformed the state and nation. Seven of the galleries encircle a central space called This Little Light of Mine. There, a dramatic sculpture glows brighter and the music of the Movement swells as visitors gather.
Reviewed By grandmareviews1952
The museum is amazing. You can step into the jail cell or watch videos of what led to the civil rights movement. The museum is filled with people and events that are displayed from the floor to the ceiling. We didn't have enough time to see the upstairs, so be sure to allow enough time to see everything. It is very moving to see how men and women believed in a better world for their families and what the sad reality of it was like for them to do so.
8. Museum of Mississippi History
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 43 reviews
Located in the heart of downtown Jackson, the museum explores over 15,000 years of state history. Visitors will enjoy innovative exhibits, educational programs, and hundreds of artifacts.
Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States
Mississippi has come a long way since the Civil War and the turbulent 1960s and it's all available for one and all to see at the Museum of Mississippi History in Jackson, Mississippi. Located at 222 North Street, combined with the equally impressive Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, it covers the history of the state as far back as 13,000 BC. Exhibits cover everything from Hernando De Soto to 19th century slavery to the Cotton Kingdom to the Civil War to Reconstruction to the Great Depression to Prohibition to the Civil Rights Movement to Hurricane Katrina. On the cutesy side, see the crown that Mary Ann Mobley wore when she won the Miss America pageant in 1958. But start with the First Peoples exhibit, which dates to 13,000 BC and traces life in Mississippi to 1518, with stories of Choctaw and Chickasaw people and artifacts such as a 500-year-old dugout canoe, weapons, pottery, tools and other archaeological discoveries. Other must-see exhibits are Mississippi Distilled, popping the cork on Prohibition, with stories of piety and politics in the "wettest dry state," where Prohibition began in 1908, 12 years before it became a national law; Cultural Crossroads 1519-1798, documenting Native Americans who first inhabited the state and Hernando De Soto and other European explorers who came later; Joining the United States 1799-1832, documenting the arrival of African-Americans, statehood for Mississippi, examining the Bowie knife, dueling pistols and other weapons that determined frontier justice and how federal laws forced Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations to leave their ancestral homelands; Cotton Kingdom 1833-1865, featuring the earliest photographs taken in Mississippi and comparing the lives of an enslaved family, yeoman farmers and wealthy planters, noting that by 1984 there were more slaves than whites in Mississippi; The World Remade 1866-1902, Reconstruction in Mississippi, the story of a Mississippi businessman who first bottled Coca-Cola and a collection of tools used by African-American blacksmiths; Promise and Peril 1903-1927, witness the struggles of suffragettes Nellie Nugent Somerville and Belle Kearney in their quest for equal rights, see a lamp used during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and explore changes and challenges that Mississippi faced at the turn of the century; Bridging Hardship 1928-1945, documents how the Great Depression crippled Mississippi, how FDR's New Deal put Mississippi back to work and displays a baseball glove owned by Willie Mitchell, a Mississippi native who once struck out Babe Ruth; and Forging Ahead, 1946 to present, allows visitors to survey damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and see how the struggle for civil rights raged in courtrooms, how Mississippi moved forward in industry, technology and immigration, how a diverse array of activists, artisans, entrepreneurs, politicians and everyday citizens contributed to the Mississippi story. For outsiders, it's a very fascinating journey through the history of a state that has undergone dramatic changes.
9. Lincoln County Historical and Genealogical Society Museum
10. Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 122 reviews
Museum that chronicles the rich history and culture of African Americans in the southern United States.
Reviewed By dnh2014 - Loxton, Australia
A very good place to visit. The person there on our visit was very knowledgeable and really enjoyed talking about all that the Museum is trying to do. Well worth a stop in.
