Our drive in took us over the great Mississippi River into
the great state of Mississippi. It was
interesting to see the landscape change dramatically from Louisiana - much
greener and the roads were much larger.
The Magnolia RV Park in Vicksburg was very old, but turned out to be
very nice. They gave us an extra site to
park the truck and there was a huge field for the dogs to run and frolic. We had the added bonus of being five minutes
from everything – what a treat.
Our first day we drove into downtown Vicksburg to see the
Coca-Cola museum and the old corner drugstore.
It is a great downtown area very well preserved with lots of Antebellum
(Pre Civil War which began in 1861) buildings.
Coca-Cola syrup was invented by Dr. John Pemberton a pharmacist in his
Atlanta backyard in 1886. Vicksburg is
where Coca-Cola was bottled for the first time in 1894 by Joseph Biedenharn a
candy merchant. Before that you could
only get your delicious and refreshing fuzzy beverage at a soda fountain for 5
cents where they mixed the syrup with club soda. It was great fun to see all of the old
bottling machines and advertisements.
The key to Coca-Cola’s success was their advertising. It was promoted to be good for you - cured
headaches and the afternoon doldrums!
The Colonial Corner Drugstore had a huge display of medicines from the
civil war era and all kinds of bottles and contraptions.
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| Old Coca-Cola advertising |
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| Colonial Corner Drugstore |
The next day we visited the Lower Mississippi River Museum
where we learned all about Vicksburg and the Mississippi River. Only the southern tip of Vicksburg remains on
the Mississippi River today, most of it is now on the Yazoo diversion channel,
but back in the 1800’s it was a crucial port in history. This is a fabulous brand new hands-on museum. They also have the motor vessel Mississippi
IV on display and open for touring. It
was a working Towboat from the 1960’s to early 90’s. We were able to walk throughout the ship and
they even had a driving simulator where we tried to dock the boat – quite fun. We then went over to the McNutt House circa
1826 the second oldest structure in downtown Vicksburg. Unfortunately it has been turned into an Inn
so we were really only able to tour two rooms and the garden. The current owner is a huge history buff and
gave us more information than we could have ever asked for.
We saved our last day for the Vicksburg National Military
Park and it was a great day. We watched
a short movie on the 46 day siege between Lt Gen John Pemberton (no relation to
the inventor of Coca-Cola syrup) of the Confederacy and Maj. Gen Ulysses Grant
of the Union. This was a crucial win for
the Union. The Confederacy had a great location in Vicksburg, high on the banks
of the Mississippi. So, Grant put time
on his side and the Confederacy was finally broken, not in battle, but by
disease and starvation. The national
park has over 1,340 monuments and markers with a 16 mile driving tour. Over 20,000 Americans died in the battle of
Vicksburg. Each state that participated in the battle had their own monument
and some of the monuments were amazing.
They also have the only remaining ironclad ship “Cairo” on display along
with all of the artifacts they collected when it was raised from the Yazoo
canal.
Illinois Monument
Texas Monument
Vicksburg was a great stop!
Coming soon… Breaux Bridge, LA and
Panama City Beach, FL
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