Browsing: History

Learn about Mississippi’s rich history and the people who lived it.

Each year in November, U.S. Marines gather to celebrate their founding. Whether in formal dress or in the uniform of the day, from ballrooms to field tents to hangars, these celebrations include long-standing traditions such as cake-cutting, toasting absent comrades, and the reading of the Commandant’s birthday message. 

When I was a kid growing up in Pascagoula, adventure started in my backyard. My best friend and I would lug an old aluminum boat down to the water, haul out a car battery to hook up the trolling motor, and pack snacks, Cokes, and whatever else we could scrounge out of the cabinets into a bag. The plan—at least at first—was always to make it all the way to Round Island, that mysterious speck on the horizon that seemed impossibly far away to two kids in a twelve-foot boat

MOSS POINT—The solemnity of the eleventh day of November on the eleventh hour and the eleventh minute is a silence recognized around the globe as a small recognition of the huge thanks offered to Veterans.  Americans honor these heroes on Veterans Day while In the U.K. and other Commonwealth countries, it’s Remembrance Day. In France and Belgium, it’s still called Armistice Day.

In Mississippi, food is more than a necessity—it’s culture, memory, and connection all rolled into one. Whether it’s a family gathered around the Sunday dinner table, neighbors sharing a plate of fried catfish, or college students swapping stories over a late-night po-boy, our meals carry meaning. Few restaurants capture that spirit better than Oby’s, a Mississippi-grown favorite with a story that stretches from Pearl Harbor to Starkville.

There’s something sacred about a place that’s weathered centuries and still stands tall. On the quiet edge of Pascagoula Bay, the LaPointe-Krebs House does just that. It’s not flashy or ornate—but it doesn’t need to be. Its age, its bones, and the stories baked into its tabby walls make it one of the most remarkable buildings not only in Mississippi but across the American South.

Can you imagine a diet with no Italian red sauce, or tomato sandwiches? What about no French fries, guacamole, corn on the cob, or sweet potato pie? That’s what food in Europe was like before the Europeans found the Americas. The Europeans did have cabbage, onions, peas, broad beans, greens and carrots, grapes, apples, pears, raspberries, and currents, but the addition of New World foods would be perhaps the biggest change in European diets ever, in fact, it was a culinary revolution. 

Nestled in the storied hills of Oxford, Mississippi, sits one of Mississippi’s most intriguing homes, Rowan Oak. The antebellum-style home was built in 1844 by Irish immigrant Colonel Robert Sheegog and is most popularly known as the longtime residence of Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner.

Just above the banks of St. Catherine Creek in historic Natchez stands a house that has quietly watched Mississippi’s story unfold for over two centuries. Known as The House on Ellicott’s Hill, this unassuming home—built in 1798—it is the oldest surviving building Natchez. And like any old Mississippi home worth its salt, it has some stories to tell.

Just outside the serene town of Flora, Mississippi, lies one of the state’s most captivating natural wonders—the Mississippi Petrified Forest. This rare geological site, nestled among the undulating hills of Madison County, is more than just an unusual roadside attraction. It’s a living museum, a tangible link to Earth’s deep past, and a striking testament to the fact that Mississippi’s narrative began long before humans ever set foot on its soil.