The highway route to the Mississippi Delta is flat land with scattered outcroppings of forests of hardwood and cypress. For miles the traveler can see fields and fields of cotton row crops with the forests dotting the horizon. Small towns sit quietly by the various approaching highways waiting to welcome guests. But the Mississippi Delta is a region of history, blues, antiques, nature, and the river. The river is the reason for the Delta, but the people of the Delta made their way with growing cotton, making music, and enjoying nature. That's what the traveler along the highways leading to the Delta wants to experience - its history, its music, its antiques, its nature, and its river.

The Mississippi Delta is the region of lowlands bordering the Mississippi River. It occurs, not at the mouth of the river where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico as many people think, but in the middle part of Mississippi. Greenville is the largest Mississippi city in the Delta and is located midway between Vicksburg in Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee.

Blues, Nature, History and the River
The Blues and the Delta are almost inseparable in conversations. Blues can be discussed without mentioning the Delta, but the opposite is seldom true. A walk along the streets of Greenville will prove this to be true. Take a short drive north to Clarksdale to one of the Delta's most popular attractions -- the Delta Blues Museum. Take the scenic Highway 1 North, which offers a panoramic view of the Delta and its massive Levee System. Many of the original records, instruments and belongings of some of the world's greatest Blues players are at the Blues Museum in Clarksdale.

The Mississippi River Levee System is all that stands between North America's largest river and the washing away of the Delta's land. This engineering marvel created largely by the blood, sweat and tears of manual laborers, winds endlessly along the Delta landscape. The Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau can offer several points available for motorcoach entry and exit for a brief drive down this impressive project. Nearby is an antebellum slave-built levee system along Rattlesnake Bayou, now in the middle of one of Greenville's most exclusive neighborhoods. (CONTNUE...)