50 States of Wonder
8 Historic Spots to Stop Along Mississippi's Most Famous River

Construction on Longwood, a sprawling home capped by an onion-shaped dome, skidded to a halt at the beginning of the Civil War, and was never completed. The owner envisioned 32 rooms and six stories, few of which were completed. Today, visitors can survey the unfinished extravagance and dashed architectural ambition with a guided tour that offers a peek up into the unfinished rotunda. (Read more.)

In 1908, five young employees died in a gas explosion at the Natchez Drug Company, and were laid to rest in the Natchez City Cemetery. Their bereft employer installed a statue of an angel to stand guard above their humble gravestones, and local legend has it that when the light is right, the figure turns to gaze at passing cars. (Read more.)

Florence Irene Ford died of yellow fever in 1871, at the age of 10. In life, the young girl had been scared of storms, and her grieving mother worried that wind and rain would rattle her after death, too. When Florence was interred at Natchez City Cemetery, her mother, Ellen, insisted that a small set of stairs be installed next to the grave, topped with a metal door that could be fastened shut. The idea was that, when storms raged, Ellen could sit down there, next to a window at the head of her daughter’s coffin, and keep her company until the tempest had passed. (Read more.)

This grassy, artificial plateau was once a well-appointed site, constructed centuries ago by members of the indigenous Plaquemine Culture. This mound—the second-largest known to have been built in the present-day United States—rises 65 feet and was once stippled with ceremonial stone structures. Archaeological excavations have turned up animal bones and ceramics that led researchers to believe it played a role in rituals—but today, visitors have to imagine its former glory. (Read more.)

These 29 imposing columns are all that remain of a grand home flattened by fire in 1890. Construction on the four-story mansion wrapped in 1861, but the owner, Smith Coffee Daniell II, died just a few weeks later. Both Union and Confederate troops used the elegant cupola as a lookout during the Civil War, and Mark Twain later came by to watch the Mississippi River rush past. Historians weren’t entirely sure what the building looked like until a sketch surfaced in 1990, the handiwork of a Union soldier who had drawn it in 1863. Today, visitors can wander the ruins and recall what the home looked like before it was lost to flames. (Read more.)

Mississippi native Joseph Biedenharn grew up in his family’s confectionary and soda fountain business, and knew that guzzlers all over the state would swoon over Coca-Cola, if only they could wrap their mouths around it. (At the time, you could only swig it from a soda fountain.) Biedenharn hit upon the idea of bottling it, and his entrepreneurial spirit helped vault the beverage toward mega-brand status. This museum rounds up scores of bubbly memorabilia, including the equipment Biedenharn used to bottle the drink in 1894. (Read more.)

Enormous novelty guitars mark the spot where 20th-century blues legend Robert Johnson is said to have traded his soul to the devil in exchange for musical gifts. The Faustian bargain, real or rumored, worked out well for Johnson, who stirred crowds to near frenzy. (Read more.)

This 200-year-old bar is one of the last standing remnants of so-called “Nasty Natchez,” a town that, in the 19th century, had a reputation for boozing, brawling, and no shortage of licentiousness. Named for its geographic location, the bar is home to a curious tradition. Just look up: Customers fold a quarter and a thumbtack into a dollar bill and chuck it into the ceiling with enough force to stick into the wood, so that every summer, the bar owners are flush with cash for a July 4th cookout. (Read more.)