Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Real events too strange to have made the textbook.
Clarksdale, MS
A small, long-running juke joint closely associated with Clarksdale's living blues scene. It is an active nightlife venue rather than a daytime museum, so hours and performances should be checked before routing travelers there.
Natchez, MS
A memorial museum at the site of the 1940 Rhythm Night Club fire, one of the deadliest nightclub fires in U.S. history. Exhibits preserve victim names, photographs, recordings and survivor accounts from a tragedy that killed more than 200 people.
Clarksdale, MS
The former G.T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital became a Green Book-era hotel run by the Ratliff family and hosted generations of blues musicians and Black travelers. As of 2026 it is no longer operating as a hotel and functions as a museum/interpretive site with tours arranged by contact.
Greenwood, MS
The grave at Little Zion is the burial location most widely accepted for blues musician Robert Johnson. Because Johnson has multiple memorial/grave claimant sites in Mississippi, OddWay should identify this one specifically rather than presenting all three as equally certain.
Quito, MS
A headstone erected at Payne Chapel marks another location once claimed as Robert Johnson's burial place. It is useful as part of the unusual three-grave story surrounding Johnson, but should not be described as the accepted burial site.
Morgan City, MS
A Robert Johnson memorial/cenotaph at Mount Zion, one of several places historically proposed as his burial site. Current scholarship generally favors Little Zion, so this stop should be labeled as a memorial and former grave claimant rather than the confirmed grave.
Rocky Springs, MS
The cemetery of the vanished Rocky Springs community, with old stones remaining after most of the town itself disappeared. Treat it as a historic cemetery: visit during lawful access hours, keep to paths and do not disturb graves.
Rocky Springs, MS
The remains of a once-prosperous settlement abandoned after disease, erosion, war and economic decline. The NPS site preserves traces of the town, interpretive features and paths through a landscape that has largely returned to woods.
Rocky Springs, MS
A surviving 1800s church standing near the vanished community of Rocky Springs. Its isolated setting beside a ghost-town landscape gives travelers a rare physical anchor to a town that otherwise almost disappeared.
Rodney, MS
A surviving 1830s church anchors the remains of Rodney, once an important Mississippi River town that declined after the river shifted away. Roads can be rough and surrounding property may be private; this is a ghost-town driving stop, not permission to enter abandoned structures. Coordinate source: https://www.hmdb.org/
Rolling Fork, MS
A prehistoric mound site embedded in the modern Rolling Fork landscape, preserving part of the Delta's much older human history. Use the public marker/viewing area and respect any adjacent private property.
Oxford, MS
William Faulkner's longtime home, preserved by the University of Mississippi with his rooms, grounds and writing environment still central to the visit. The estate gives travelers a direct physical setting for one of the South's most influential and famously gothic literary imaginations.
Coahoma, MS
A once larger Mississippian mound-and-plaza complex near Coahoma, including a large surviving platform mound with a historic cemetery on its summit. MDAH identifies it as private property with a designated viewing area.
Ocean Springs, MS
A family pottery compound founded by Peter Anderson in 1928 and still producing ceramics using long-established forms, glazes and local traditions. The showroom is public while the working property remains an active craft site, so visitors should follow posted access rules.
Woodville, MS
Three substantial Coles Creek-era ceremonial mounds surround a central plaza near Mississippi Highway 24. The site is archaeologically important but private, so observe it from the highway/public viewing area only.
Jackson, MS
A museum of African American history and culture housed in Jackson's first public school building for Black children. Exhibits cover slavery, migration, civil rights, Mississippi Black institutions and figures including former student Richard Wright.
Port Gibson, MS
A deeply eroded remnant of the Old Natchez Trace where centuries of foot, horse and wagon traffic carved the roadbed below the surrounding ground. A short path from the Parkway pull-off lets visitors walk directly into the historic corridor.
Hollandale, MS
A Native American mound site inside Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge, where two of four original mounds remain visible near the lake. Refuge roads, trails and visitor facilities make this a comparatively accessible archaeological stop; check refuge conditions before going.
Sumner, MS
The courthouse where the 1955 murder trial following Emmett Till's killing took place. It remains a functioning civic building as well as a major civil-rights historic site, so interior access depends on courthouse schedules and current visitor arrangements.
Rolling Fork, MS
A roadside marker tied to Theodore Roosevelt's 1902 Mississippi bear hunt and the story that helped inspire the name "teddy bear." The event's popular retelling has become part of American toy folklore, making this a compact but meaningful OddWay stop.
Tupelo, MS
The still-operating hardware store where Elvis Presley's mother bought him his first guitar after he reportedly asked for a rifle. Visitors can stand at the marked location inside the store where the purchase story is interpreted.
Tupelo, MS
A one-acre National Park Service site marking the July 1864 Battle of Tupelo, where Union forces sought to protect critical railroad supply lines. The compact monument is easy to route and serves as a physical stop for a battle whose wider landscape has largely been absorbed by modern Tupelo. Coordinate source: https://www.recreation.gov/gateways/2959
Vicksburg, MS
A vast national cemetery containing the graves of more than 17,000 Union soldiers, many of them unidentified, along with later veterans. It is a powerful physical record of Civil War loss and should be visited as a cemetery and memorial.
Vicksburg, MS
The main entry point to the vast battlefield landscape surrounding Vicksburg, with earthworks, monuments, artillery positions and preserved siege terrain. The park documents the 1863 campaign whose outcome helped give the Union control of the Mississippi River. Coordinate source: https://www.recreation.gov/gateways/2782
