Louisiana

On highways emanating in all directions from the Delta, you’ll find markers for Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters and B.B. King. Along the way, there are scores of blues museums and stops like the Elvis Presley birthplace in Tupelo.

In Clarksdale, there are the Delta Blues Museum and the Rock ’n’ Roll & Blues Heritage Museum, plus venues like actor and Delta resident Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club, where you can get a beer and a plate of fried catfish, along with an evening of music.

msbluestrail.org/index.aspx.

2. Museum of Natural Science

Founded in 1932 as part of the Mississippi Game and Fish Commission, the Museum of Natural Science is located in LeFleur’s Bluff State Park and surrounded by scenic nature trails that meander through wooded bluffs, river bottoms, lakes and swamps.

It’s an ideal location for a museum dedicated to promoting an understanding and appreciation of the state’s biological diversity. With a building opened in 2000, the outdoor environment and the indoor exhibits include life-size habitat displays, an aquarium system with more than 200 native species, a greenhouse with native plants that houses an aquarium with alligators and turtles, and open-air amphitheater.

Ongoing interactive events include fish feedings, creature features, naturalist lecture series, and story time. Admission $4-$6. Open daily, except holidays.

2148 Riverside Drive, Jackson. 1-601-576-6000, www.mdwfp.com.

3. Southern Foodways

Oxford may be best known for Faulkner and football. But beyond a pilgrimage to William Faulkner’s house, Rowan Oak, or an afternoon of tailgating in the Grove, the small town that’s home to the University of Mississippi offers many more pleasures of Southern culture.

Notably, it’s become a hot spot for Southern food, thanks to the two Johns: chef John Currence, who owns a group of four restaurants under the title of his flagship spot, City Grocery; and food writer John T. Edge, who heads the Southern Foodways Alliance, part of the university’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture.

At Currence’s City Grocery spots, you’ll find elegant takes on classics like shrimp and grits, grilled quail and fried catfish. Edge’s Alliance documents, studies and celebrates that kind of food with tasting events all over the country and the annual Southern Foodways Symposium in Oxford in October.

citygroceryonline.com.

www.southernfoodways.org.

4. Angels on the Bluff

History, pageantry and a bit of gothic weirdness have made the annual Angels on the Bluff presentation at the Natchez City Cemetery, overlooking the Mississippi River, an unlikely hit.

Something like Edgar Lee Master’s “Spoon River Anthology,” the elaborate antebellum theater and music production features guided tours of selected grave sites, where local citizens and family descendants dressed in period costumes portray the life and times of the local folk buried there.

Tours begin every 15 minutes, and each group is limited to 50 people. Due to the lack of parking at the cemetery, free shuttle transportation is provided from the Natchez Visitor Center to the cemetery, and everyone must board at the time designated on the ticket purchased. Tickets $25. Nov. 8-9.

Natchez Visitors Center, 640 S. Canal St., Natchez. 1-601-446-6345, www.visitnatchez.org.

5. Natchez Trace

Parkway

Mile marker one in Natchez marks the southernmost point of the Natchez Trace Parkway. Maintained by the National Park Service, the decidedly laid-back two-lane highway rambles some 444 miles between Natchez and Nashville, Tenn., with Jackson and Tupelo, Miss., where the Parkway headquarters is located, along the way.

It follows the route of the original Natchez Trace, an old trail tramped out and marked over time by buffalo, American Indians, traders and settlers. Nowadays, visitors can take in the history of the old Trace while enjoying a scenic drive with stops for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and camping.

The Parkway and campsites are free, on a first-come, first-served basis. Otherwise, all gas, food and lodging are located at stops off the parkway. Look for a list on the NPS website.

National Park Service station, 2680 Natchez Trace Parkway, Tupelo. 1-662-680-4002, www.nps.gov/natr/planyourvisit/parkway-maps.htm.

6. Lauren Rogers

Museum of Art

Housing a surprising collection of American, European and Native American art, along with Japanese wood block prints and British Georgian sterling silver, the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel is tucked away in a residential neighborhood near the center of town.

In fact, the brick facade of the Georgian Revival building, designed by New Orleans architect Rathbone deBuys, looks more like a residence than a museum. Inside, 19th- and 20th-century paintings by noteworthy American artists such as Winslow Homer, Albert Bierstadt, George Inness, John Frederick Kensett, Ralph Albert Blakelock and John Singer Sargent form the core of the permanent collection.

The museum’s North Garden is home to changing sculpture exhibitions. Free admission, with a $3 suggested donation. Open Tuesdays-Sundays. Closed Mondays and holidays.

565 N. Fifth Ave., Laurel. 1-601-649-6374, lrma.org.

7. St. Mary Basilica

Considered an architectural masterpiece among Catholic churches in the South, St. Mary Basilica is the central landmark of Natchez, a city known for its historic antebellum homes.

St. Mary’s antebellum history goes back to 1842, when the cornerstone was laid. The Gothic Revival church took more than 40 years to be completed and was consecrated in 1886. In 2002, there was a complete renovation of the colorful, richly ornamented interior.

Among the artistic and architectural details, a portrait of Christ on the Cross hangs above the main altar. A set of stained-glass windows were made in Austria, and the three Carrara marble altars were fashioned in Italy. Located at the corner of Main and Union Streets beside a city park, where visitors may stop to relax or picnic, St. Mary Basilica is open to the public daily.

107 S. Union St., Natchez. 1-601-445-5616, www.stmarybasilica.org.

8. River casinos

With cards, slots, craps, roulette and more, Vicksburg’s casinos on the banks of the Mississippi River are open for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Each of the four river casinos — Ameristar, Horizon, Diamond Jack’s and Riverwalk — has its own hotel and restaurants along with its own gaming theme and atmosphere.

Ameristar features three entertainment venues, including the Bottleneck Blues Bar and the Casino Cabaret. The newest, Riverwalk, is a single-level, land-based casino, where the motto, “Get Happy,” goes with all kinds of weekly and monthly giveaways and promotions, plus a rewards-based players club.

Ameristar, 4116 Washington St., Vicksburg. 1-601-638-1000, www.ameristar.com/Vicksburg.aspx.

Riverwalk, 1046 Warrenton Road, Vicksburg. 1-601-634-0100, www.riverwalkvicksburg.com.

9. Canton Movie

Museums

Canton Movie Museums celebrates the times when the small town and its well-preserved Greek Revival Courthouse Square historic district were at the center of filmmaking in Mississippi.

The museum shows off props and sets from films shot in Canton, including artifacts from “A Time to Kill,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” “My Dog Skip,” “The Rising Place” and the PBS Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Eudora Welty’s “The Ponder Heart.” Guided tours are available, and tickets must be purchased at the Canton Welcome Center on the west side of the square.

Admission $3-$7. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays-Fridays; 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays; closed holidays.

200 W. Center St. Canton. 1-601-859-1307, www.cantontourism.com/movie_museums.html.

10. Delta Hot Tamale Festival

Better known for fried catfish, Mississippi has a long and surprising tradition of hot tamales that goes back to at least the early 20th century.

Robert Johnson sang about them in his 1936 recording, “They’re Red Hot.” And the Southern Foodways Alliance created the Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail to document the history, tradition and culture of tamale rolling in the state: www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/hot-tamale-trail. Now there’s the Delta Hot Tamale Festival in Greenville, a place that lays claim to being “The Hot Tamale Capital of the World.” The festival features a parade, street party, cooking and eating contests, and a “literary/culinary mashup” and dinner. Oct. 17-19. Tickets $40-$150.

www.hottamalefest.com/index.html.

Hidden gem: The Ponderosa Stomp

A visionary museum dedicated to a visionary potter, George E. Ohr (1857-1918), a Mississippi native known as “the Mad Potter of Biloxi.” Ohr is considered the father of American art pottery.

His pots, vases and the clay sculptures Ohr called his “mud babies” are remarkable for their glazes and unusual forms. The clay of southern Mississippi is unique in its texture and firing traits, and from rustic and utilitarian to artistic, Mississippi pottery is an iconic American art form.

Ohr had the ability to make pottery paper thin. He treated clay like pie dough, pinching it, crimping it, denting it and manipulating the surface into angular folds.

It’s fitting, then, that the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum chose Frank Gehry to design the museum and its four-acre arts campus.

Gehry is famed for manipulating thin metal sheets into undulating forms.

Sadly, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina heavily damaged or destroyed buildings that were 18 months from completion. Rebuilding began in 2008, and new phases opened in 2010 and 2012, reflecting the vision of Gehry and his homage to Ohr. Admission $5-$10. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays.

386 Beach Blvd., Biloxi. 1-228-374-5547, www.georgeohr.org.