Laurel, Mississippi

Laurel, The City Beautiful, is 40 miles north of Hattiesburg, in the middle of Yellow Pine country, Mississipi. It has had its ups and downs since its beginnings in the mid 1800’s as a lumber town. By the end of World War I, Laurel was producing more yellow pine than any other place in the world. Four major mills were producing more than a million board feet a day, enough to stretch 189 miles!

The Great Depression saw the end of the lumber industry, and Laurel slowly deteriorated until the late 30’s, when William H. Mason, an apprentice of Thomas Edison, patented a method of turning wood waste into a wood fiberboard that was used extensively throughout World War II and it still in high demand today as building doors and interior millwork. Masonite has a presence internationally, but the local Masonite plant is still one of the areas leading employers, using 27 acres worth of timber a day! 

There was a short oil boom in the 1970’s, then Laurel went dormant again until locals Ben and Erin Napier begin to refurbish houses in the historic district about seven years ago. Erin kept a blog on their projects that was noticed by HGTV and became a television program called “Hometown”, now in its sixth season. We stopped for a few days to see what’s happening.

The temperature has been about 95 degrees, with humidity in the mid 70’s. Donna and Sasha have elected to stay in the truck with the ac maxed out!

The Hometown crew works out of The Scotsman Company, where their workshop is on view. The public is not allowed to tour the shop for obvious reasons, but a quick peek through a window gave us a look at the extensive equipment that any woodworker would love to have!

The Scotsman Company has been very successful, and that success has been reinvested in downtown Laurel. New infrastructure, with street improvements have made a somewhat haphazard design easier to navigate.

Along with Ms Pearls soul food and Grits ‘n Some, the Scent Library and Bird Dog Cafe, one of the most outstanding businesses in town is Hellfighters Motorcycle Company. 

This shop is huge. It’s primarily a motorcycle shop, but was founded as a support group for recovering male addicts. Every penny of profits is reinvested in an in house faith based program. Hundreds of men have graduated from the program, and some work in the store. It’s a worthy cause that has helped countless men overcome addiction issues. I wanted to make a donation via that blacked out Indian motorcycle, but had to settle for a few souvenirs….

Many of the motorcycles on display for sale are previously owned, and some are customized in unusual ways or are vintage machines.

Displays of apparel and trinkets are stuffed into every corner of the building. Gloves, helmets, leather goods and all the way up to $50,000 motorcycles are available.

There’s one area where we felt right at home.

Oh, and then there’s this:

In addition to having a complete and well stocked armory, the back room of the store is a collection of new and used parts for just about every motorcycle ever made: fenders, seats, lights, cables, engine and transmission parts, nuts and bolts! It a junkyard junky’s dream come true! There were eight rows of parts like this one.

We’ve enjoyed a bit of time in Mississippi, and our time in space 44 at Sleepy Hollow RV Park is no exception.

The weather has been interesting the last few days with thunderstorms, heavy rain, and wind. The trees around the park seem to protect us for the most part, but whenever we get a NOAA alert, we get nervous! The locals tell us that 99% of the storms don’t amount to anything, but there’s that 1%…..and as I write this, at 11:00 pm, it’s raining buckets, the lightening is cracking and the thunder is rolling. One “boom” just now was felt, as well as heard! The weather app shows that we have another hour of this, so we’ll need to stay up to comfort Sasha for a little while yet….and ourselves…..

Starkville, Mississippi

 The Natchez Trace, Part 3.

122 miles north of Brandon, MS, Starkville is the home of Mississippi State University (go dawgs!). It’s also very close to another section of the Natchez Trace, so we’ve stopped for a few days to explore.

We have settled into site number 3 at the Starkville KOA, on Highway 82 about 8 miles west of Starkville.

The park is mostly empty this time of year, probably because of the heat, but the park manager, Randy, says that in the fall, during football season, a campsite is impossible to obtain. Football is King in the south!

We headed out on the third 100+ mile leg of the Natchez, picking it up near the town of Mathiston and driving north toward Tupelo. Again, the scenery was beautiful. For us westerners, the sheer amount of “green” is almost overwhelming.

Along the Trace, points of interest are identified. There are dozens of these POI’s and we stopped at all of them. Several places stick in our mind, however, including this maintained section of the Old Trace. Awesome.

The species of the trees in this area are unknown to me, but the bark is very interesting.

Mounds built by Native Americans of the Mississipian culture are scattered throughout the area. Their purpose remains unclear, but it’s interesting to speculate on the mounds’ uses.

At a group of four mounds, we ate a perfect picnic lunch and wondered what the site may have been like hundreds of years ago.

The landscape changed as we neared Tupelo, to large farms and cattle ranches. It was a sudden and abrupt change that caught us by surprise.

We drove north to the little burg of Dennis, MS, before turning south towards home. Without even a whimper, we suddenly found ourselves in Alabama!

Tammy Wynette grew up in this area, and we inadvertently found a public park dedicated to her memory while we were studying the map, trying to get out of Alabama!

We had another bucket list item to check, and it was in….

And the bucket list item is…..

Got it?

No?

Maybe this will help….

Now we’ve got it!

In a very nice, quiet park on Main Street, Tupelo, Elvis Presley’s birthplace is preserved for generations of fans. The home is roughly the size of a modern living room, but was home for an entire family. In 1939, most homes in the area had outhouses, and this was no exception. 

On the grounds, Elvis’s early years are described with quotes from friends and playmates telling of after school baseball games, sneaking into tent revival meetings to listen to music, and the shy, self conscious 13 year old strumming a new guitar for friends in school.

Navigating the gift shop, with its displays of early Elvis souvenirs (read about the deal in the photo below)

And avoiding the battery operated, swivel hip Elvis clocks,

Then sneaking past the tour busses,

We escaped the Elvis shrine without mishap.

On our way to enjoy a BBQ lunch at Jim’s, we located the Tupelo Hardware store, where Elvis’s mother bought him his first guitar for seven bucks. That seven dollars changed the world of music forever.

A great lunch at BBQ by Jim got us into conversation with Jim’s daughter, and eventually, his wife, a graduate of Mississippi State in Starkville. After 36 years in business, Jim and his family are considering retirement, so if you want to own a business in Tupelo, MS, check it out….

Neon sign repair will be completed upon sale.

One last point of interest in eastern Mississippi was the largest Confederate graveyard in the state. Located in Okolona, 30 miles north of Starkville, it contains the remains of between 900 and 1000 Confederate Soldiers, many of which are unknown.

We explored Okolona a bit and discovered several remodeling projects needing some attention.

On the way home we came across another Mississippi home in need of some tender loving care.

See you at the jobsite. Seven am, sharp.