Tag 5 - Crystal Springs, Port Gibson, Rodney, Bolton, Raymond and Jackson

Crystal Springs

Good Hope Church Cemetery

   

                            Port Gibson/ Windsor Castle

Rodney - Ghost Town

"In the mid-1800s, the city was three votes away from being the capital of Mississippi and had around 500 residents. It was a bustling port town by the river with a high literacy rate, an integrated church, two newspapers and an opera house.

Then things went south for Rodney. First, the Civil War happened. Then came two nasty fires. Around 1870, the Mississippi River literally turned on Rodney, changing its course—a natural phenomenon that happens every thousand years—away from the town and dealing it an economic death blow. By 1930, the town was taken off the state register by the state governor, leaving behind a handful of residents and a bunch of decaying buildings that are still sagging from the weight of time.

I’ve heard of broken hearts, but when you have the chance to visit a town dumped by the greatest river in the land, you have to do it. I’ve visited all kinds of ruins, from Rome to Syria, but this hit me much closer to home—it’s a reminder of our mortality, how forces outside our control can burn us at any time.

Neither the wine bar owners nor my host, a writer who knows all about Mississippi, could tell me exactly how to find Rodney. Their best advice was to drive south to Alcorn State University, then ask for help from there. "  Greg Keraghosian

Bolton

Raymond

                                                 Jackson

    The Iron Horse Grill - Birthplace of America`s Music,Jackson