High Water, Caching and Sightseeing in Vicksburg 4/12/2008

Today we drove up to Vicksburg again to do some more caching and more sightseeing as we didn't get to much of a chance to see the city as the traffic was heavy. Once we got there we started with a 6 stage multi-cache that took us on a historic driving tour of the city. The first stop on the cache was Planters' Hall Circa 1834. This site housed the Vicksburg branch of the Planters' Bank of Mississippi until 1842. It was occupied by the officers of 28th Louisiana Reg. during the Vicksburg Siege. It was acquired by Vicksburg Council of Garden Clubs in 1956. Stage two was at The Old Courthouse Museum Circa 1858, which was originally built to house the Court House in Vicksburg. It is perched on one of the highest hills in Vicksburg and was built by 100 highly skilled slave artisans and was completed in 1860 at a cost of $100,000. It has hosed such guests and speakers as Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, Booker T. Washington, Teddy Roosevelt and William McKinley. During the Civil War it was the target of much shelling from the Union Army but received only one major hit. In 1953 the building received a major hit by a tornado and fell into disrepair and was neglected. In 1947, after talks of demolition, Eva W. Davis with the help of volunteers restored and cleaned the building and started collecting artifacts and in 1948 it opened its doors as a museum. Stage three was at Pemberton Headquarters (Willis-Cowan House) Circa 1835. Military headquarters of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, who commanded the Confederate forces during the siege of Vicksburg. Here on July 3, 1863, the decision was made to surrender the city. Stage 4 was at 901, 903, 913 Crawford St. which was a townhouse Circa 1830. The middle house was constructed in 1830 by John Lane, a member of Vicksburg's founding family. Flanking Italianate townhouses constructed Circa 1872: 901 by the neice of Jefferson Davis and 913 by Judge Upton Young. Stage 5 was in the downtown area located at the 1953 Tornado Memorial. On December 4, 1953 the day started out normal and they said it was just going to rain. The town was all decorated for Xmas and the shops were set to close at 5:00 pm and then the clouds got dark and it rained intermittently and at 5:35 pm a tornadic wind roared through downtown and destroyed everything in its path. The aftermath was unbelievable, motorists were killed as the drove through the streets, debris buried victims, phone and power lines were down and the Saturday matinee ended early with a massive roof collapse on children. The toll was 38 dead, 200 injured, and 1200 were left homeless. We then walked to Stage 6 and the final one which was located in a small park off the steps down to the street.
Next cache brought us back to the Old Courthouse Museum and a cache located in the rear of the building at the bottom of a set of about 30-35 very steep steps. Once we negotiated them and found the cache unfortunately we had to climb back up. Next cache was located on a corner at at small grassy area that had an old cannon on display, then it was back to the general area of the Tornado Memorial and a cache located in the parking lot on a railing, then a cache at the Vicksburg Convention Center in a light pole. The we drove on to Vicksburg Riverfront Park, passing the Horizon Casino Riverboat which had to move its entrance because of flooding, and a cache located in the park near Diamond Jack's Casino which also is starting to flood.Then it was on to a cache near the historic marker Tobias Gibson. It was his home site and he was the Father to Methodism in Mississippi. He was sent to MS in 1799 as a missionaryand he founded many of its early churches. Our last cache was located on a hill near the Vicksburg Military Park the site of Lauman's Div. a Union Trench in the Civil War.
Then it was back into downtown for some site seeing. First we went to the Vicksburg waterfront and the Vicksburg Waterfront Murals the site of 25 murals painted on the side of the floodwall separating the Mississippi River and Vicksburg. The murals capture the past, present and future of Vicksburg and its role in American history, commerce, culture, religion and technology. They were painted by Robert Dafford on of America's foremost mural painters. They really were lovely and so well done. Then it was a walk across the street to Catfish Row Art Park a lovely small park with a $180,000 playground, a lovely fountain, and the children's art walls and murals. Then we drove around town and saw several old buildings, the Coke Museum, and several spots where the river is so far over its banks.
On back to the RV and we had lunch and Mom did the blogs and I watched the Yankee game and the Masters. We did go out to eat last night at Olive Garden in Jackson but isn't wasn't as good as we were used to in Myrtle beach. Well time to say until tomorrow and we love and miss you all.


Picture List:1-Firing on the A. O. Tyler, 2-The Steamer Sultana, 3-C. S. S. Arkansas, 4,5.6.7.8-Catfish Row Art Park, 9-Old Courthouse Museum, 10-Front Entrance of Museum, 11,12,13-The Cistern House to cover the underground reservoirs that held rain water that ran off the roof of the main building by underground pipe. Water was drawn by buckets for use in the court house, for fighting fires and for public use, 14-The Varina Howell Davis Floral Garden, 15-Down those steps to the cache and then back up, 16-Constitution Firehouse Circa 1870, 17-CSA Naval Gun, 18-The Biedenharn Coke Museum where Coke was first bottled anywhere in the world in 1894, 19-Logues Creamery Bldg., 20-Flooding at Diamond Jack's Casino, 21,22-Flooding along the riverfront in Vicksburg, 23-Planters' Hall, 24-Pemberton Headquarters, 25-The Old Courthouse, 26-901,903,913 Crawford Ave, 27-Final steps to our first cache.


I WILL PUT THE PICTURES OF THE VICKSBURG WATERFRONT MURALS ON SUNDAY'S BLOG!!!!!!!!