Cotton, Catfish and Culture
By Greenwood CVB
07/21/2008
Coming into Greenwood Mississippi will surely entertain your groups as they experience all of famous treats, activities that the South is known for.
Contact Information:
t: view phone 800-748-9064
e: view email info@gcvb.com
w: view URL http://www.greenwoodms.org/
- See a working cotton farm or a working catfish farm
- Visit Cottonlandia Museum
- Lunch at Giardina's in historic downtown Greenwood
- Tour historic downtown Greenwood
Tour Dates:
Number of Days: 1
Explore the Delta's agricultural past and present with a visit to Cottonlandia Museum which chronicles the history of Leflore County and the Mississippi Delta with an emphasis on cotton agriculture. Greenwood’s Cottonlandia Museum also houses an eclectic collection of items that weave a fascinating history of the area’s past.
The museum focuses on the five “A’s”: art, archaeology, agriculture, antiques and animals. A large collection of Mississippi art work includes original paintings and drawings from the museum’s biannual state-wide art competition. The largest collection of Native American trade beads in the southern United States is on display in the archaeology collection. The agriculture room displays an impressive array of plows, fertilizer spreaders, mule hames and blacksmith tools that tell the evolution of farming. Artifacts and furniture from Malmaison, the mansion of Choctaw Indian chief Greenwood Leflore, Civil War relics and an excavated mastodon skeleton are highlights of the antique collection.
A life-size, walk-through diorama of a Mississippi swamp — complete with sound effects — and a natural science room provide hands-on learning experiences for younger visitors. After learning the history at Cottonlandia Museum hit the outdoors and experience agriculture first hand with a tour of a catfish farm. Catfish farming has marked the Delta landscape just as uniquely as cotton fields. Thousands of square ponds now stretch over the flat lands surrounding Greenwood in Leflore County.
Now that you have experience catfish take a journey back to where it all began with a trip to a cotton field where the wealth of the antebellum South was based on growing “white gold,” and Greenwood prospered into the “Cotton Capital of the World” because of its location. In the heart of the Delta and a high point in the Yazoo River, Greenwood was an prime shipping point to connect with the Mississippi River ports of Vicksburg, New Orleans, and St. Louis.
Visit our Historic Downtown to see where Greenwood houses the second largest U.S. cotton exchange, with about one fifth of the North America’s crop warehoused and sold by Staplcotn. Downtown Greenwood, one of Mississippi’s most intact commercial centers of the 21st century, is a tourist attraction by virtue of the character of its buildings, location, selections of unique businesses and events.
While downtown experience lunch at Giardina's, one of the Mississippi Delta's most historic restaurants. A unique blend of sophistication and warmth, Giardina's is the perfect setting for any event. Giardina's atmosphere is old world elegant but dress is laid-back "Delta casual.”
