Placed in honor of Elvis Presley, Tupelo’s most famous native son, this
larger than life statue was placed to commemorate the 35th anniversary of
Elvis’ death in August 2012.  It faces east toward his birthplace with
Tupelo City Hall over his left shoulder and the Tupelo Hardware (where
Gladys bought Elvis’ first guitar) over his right shoulder.

Fairpark District – 71 East Troy Street, Tupelo, MS 38804

800-533-0611

Email:  visittupelo@tupelo.net

Crow’s Neck RV Campground is a long-term and short-term RV camping with all hookups, general store, food service and fuel sales. It is located on Bay Springs Lake at Crow’s Neck Boat Ramp and Fishing Area.

76 County Road 115, Tishomingo, Mississippi 38873

Phone: 662-438-6495

306 Elvis Presley Drive
Tupelo, Misssippi
662-841-1245
www.elvispresleybirthplace.com
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday (May-September); 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday (October through April) and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday year round. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The most significant landmark of Tupelo’s modern history is a modest, two-room house where the King of Rock & Roll was born on January 8, 1935. From this humble beginning, Elvis Presley began his swift rise to become the world’s most popular entertainer.

The house, built by his father with $180, draws over 50,000 visitors each year from across the world.

Tupelo bought the house and land with money provided from a 1956 Tupelo concert by Elvis himself, who wanted a park for neighborhood children. As an official Mississippi landmark, the birthplace is part of the 15-acre Elvis Presley Park. It includes expansion of the main parking lot to accommodate motorcoaches, a garden walkway system, new entrance signs, an expanded gift shop and beautiful landscaping.

The Elvis Presley Memorial Museum has been remodele to better explain the early days of Elvis in rural Mississippi and how his roots influenced his future. The Chapel, built by donations from his fans, is a popular attraction in the park offering a time for meditation.

The large Main Building on the grounds houses the museum as well as a spacious gift shop, with more than 1,300 square feet of shop, office and storage space. In August, 2003, a story wall was unveiled offering a collection of original, unedited stories from people who knew Elvis during his Tupelo days. The “Walk of Life”, which surrounds the house where Elvis was born, is a scored concrete circle with dated granite blocks denoting each year of Elvis’ life from 1935 to 1977. The 1948 block marks the year in which Elvis and his family left for Memphis, and it leads to the “Elvis at 13” bronze statue, which was unveiled on Elvis’ 67th birthday and memorializes Elvis as a young boy wearing overalls and carrying a guitar. From there the walkway leads to “The Fountain of Life”, a beautiful water feature, which is a complete circle representing Elvis’ life in Tupelo. As you wind around the walkway you can view a 1939 green Plymouth 4-door sedan, similar to the car in which he and his family rode to Memphis in. It was the year of 1948 when the transformation of Elvis, as a young Tupelo boy began his journey as Elvis, the world’s greatest entertainer.

The Elvis Presley self-guided driving tour leads to some of the most significant locations of Elvis’ life in Tupelo.

1. The previous Assembly of God Church, location where Elvis and his family attended church under the pastor of Rev. Frank Smith
2.   Lawhon Elementary School, the first school Elvis attended
3.   Johnnie’s Drive-In, where Elvis shared moments with friend James Ausborne, while enjoying a cheeseburger and RC Cola
4.   Shakerag, a significant part of Elvis’ past where he gained influence from sanctified gospel and blues music
5.   Tupelo Fairgrounds, where Elvis performed concerts in 1956 and 1957
6.   Tupelo Hardware, where Elvis bought his first guitar
7.   Lee County Courthouse, where Elvis performed his first live radio show hosted by Mississippi Slim and WELO
8.   The previous Mayhorn’s Grocery Store, where Elvis used to sit on the porch and listen to blues and gospel music in the neighborhood where he lived
9.   Lee County Library, where Elvis received his first library card
10.  Milam Jr. High, last school Elvis attended before moving to Memphis.

1 Otis Drive
662-842-4242
www.tupeloauto.com
info@tupeloauto.com
Hours: Open 7 days a week; M-Sat. 9:00AM-4:30PM and Sunday Noon – 4:30PM. Closed Christmas, New Year Day, Easter and Thanksgiving.

Featuring 120,000 square feet of automobile displays and open viewing restoration bays, the Tupelo Automobile Museum is a dream for car lovers or for those who just want to stroll down memory lane.

Over 100 antique, classic and collectible automobiles, chronologically displayed, illustrate the progress of over 100 years of automobile design and engineering. A self-guided tour starts with an 1886 Benz, representing the birth of the automobile and culminates with a never-driven 1994 Dodge Viper. The collection, valued at over $6 million, includes a rare Tucker, a Lincoln previously owned by Elvis Presley, other movie and celebrity vehicles, Hispano Suizas, a Duesenberg and many more rare brands and American favorites.

The collection was put together to illustrate the advancement of the automotive body and mechanical designs from the late 1800’s forward. These include steam and electric vehicles of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s to the various advancements such as pneumatic tires, electric starters and numerous attempts to find a replacement for the manual transmission.

Ongoing vehicle restoration projects can be viewed through windows into restoration areas. The automobiles under restoration will be added to the display area as they are completed.

The museum is available for private and corporate functions and special group tours.

2272 N. Coley Road
662-844-8709
www.tupelobuffalopark.com
info@tupelobuffalopark.com
Hours: Monday through Thursday 9am-4pm, Friday through Saturday 9am-5pm and Sunday 11am-4pm. Trail rides will be open on Saturdays, weather permitting.

Visit The Tupelo Buffalo Park and take the tour on the Monster Bison Bus. With the largest buffalo herd East of the Mississippi River, you can get an up close and personal look on how and where buffalo live. You can even camp out over night in the Chickasaw Indian Village.

Visitors enter the park through a restored train depot building, which also houses a snack bar and souvenir shop. A 24-foot by 24-foot pavilion on the south side of the depot serves as a staging area for boarding the parks “Bison Buses”. The buses are outfitted with monster truck kits. Groups board the buses and tour the buffalo herds grazing throughout the park, with the buses pulling into protective pens, offering an opportunity to the visitor to hand-feed the buffaloes. The buffalo can weigh more than a ton each.

The herd is the pride of local businessman Dan Franklin who turned his fascination with buffaloes into one of Tupelo’s most interesting places to visit. Three hundred years ago there were millions of buffaloes roaming the American plains but by the early 1900’s, due to homestead settling and unbridled hunting, there were fewer than 1,000 remaining. Livestock farmers and dedicated conservationists have helped restore their numbers to more than 250,000.

The Buffalo Park specializes in exotic animals with the first ones coming from Canada. Some of the exotic animals you can see are monkeys, a Bengal tiger, an African lion, a Reticulated giraffe, an American black bear and a reptile section. Feature attractions to the park include a live pony carousel, horse trail rides and a petting zoo complete with pigmy goats, miniature horses, sheep and other friendly animals.

There is an exciting new activity at the Tupelo Buffalo Park called “Archeological Digging!” The Village of “Etoukouma” occupied in the 1720’s and located on the original Natchez Trace Parkway is where actual Chickasaw Indians lived and carried on day to day activities. How exciting would it be to find real artifacts from true Indian groups located here in Tupelo, MS?

There is a large party pavilion available that is ideal for tour groups and children’s special events.

Located on West Main Street in the James L. Ballard Park 
662-841-6438
www.orendunnmuseum.org
Hours:  Tuesday-Friday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Sunday hours are 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. (March – October). Closed on Monday. 

The Oren Dunn City Museum is home to a wonderful collection of historic buildings and Tupelo history. The late Oren F. Dunn, founder of the museum, was an avid history buff and storyteller. His goal was to chronicle the region’s history; the museum continues his mission today.

The museum is housed in a 1937 dairy barn. Its collection focuses primarily on Tupelo and Northeastern Mississippi history. The museum highlights include: Chickasaw Indians, Early Pioneer Settlement, 1936 Tornado, and Tupelo Agriculture and Industry. The outside village is host to three original dwellings: an 1870’s dogtrot house, a one room school and a one room chapel. The village is also home to a Frisco Caboose and replica train depot, 1940 and 1941 Tueplo Fire Trucks, the 1949 Lee County Bookmobile, and Dudie’s Diner, a Memphis streetcar turned into a famous local eatery.

The museum hosts several temporary exhibits and traveling exhibits each year: African American History and the Annual Holiday Toy Exhibit. Annual events include the Dudie Burger Festival, Living History Days, and Fall Festival.

689 Rutherford Rd
Tupelo, MS
662-844-1515
www.tupeloveteransmuseum.com
veteransmuseum@bellsouth.net
Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 9am-4pm and Saturday 10am-3pm. Closed Sunday and Monday but will open for special groups by appointment.
Admission is by donations

Located in the Oren Dunn City Museum is a wonderful collection of memorabilia honoring the men and women who dedicated their lives to the concept of ensuring freedom for all Americans. Founded by Tony Lute, who began collecting WWII artifacts since he was 16, he has continued to pursue his mission by opening the museum and is grateful to the many donors who have entrusted him with their treasures.

Among the collection you will find a display signed by one of the last surviving marine that raised the flag on Iwo Jima, a Nazi banner, a clock from a crashed Japanese zero made by Seiko and still runs, a German luger, .32 caliber officer’s dress pistol and a 9 mm German Radem. In addition a nice assortment of weapons representing Allied and Axis countries, a Kreigs Navy Flag, Nazi K98 Mausers used at the battle of Stalingrad, two rifles which were captured by the Russians at the end of WWII, and many exhibits that children will enjoy.

The artifact collection includes items from every country that participated in the war. There are thousands of artifacts on display with some of the most interesting objects including the flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol at the hour the D-Day invasion began and a functioning clock from a Japanese kamikaze plane.

607 Grisham Street
Baldwyn, MS
662-365-3969
www.bricescrossroads.com
Email: bcr@dixie-net.com

Six miles from Baldwyn on Mississippi Hwy 370 W. lies the Brice’s Crossroads National Battlefield where Confederate cavalry under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated Union troops and forced their withdrawal to Memphis.

A one-acre site maintained by the National Park Service features a monument and two cannons. Adjacent to the battlefield is the Bethany Cemetery where 95 Confederate soldiers are buried. All but one are identified. An additional 1,400 acres surrounding the one-acre site has been purchased for preservation. Newly paved trails and signage explain battle lines and troop movements. Development is underway in four phases. Granite markers along Highway 370 describe the battle.

Four miles east of the battlefield site on Grisham Street, adjacent to Hwy 45 in Baldwyn, is the Brice’s Crossroads Visitors and Interpretive Center. The center offers an interpretive exhibit featuring Civil War artifacts, a battlefield diorama and interactive exhibits. A 22-minute video program with an introduction by Civil War historian and author Shelby Foote is available to orient visitors to the battle. On the Center grounds, a memorial of flags highlights the sacrifice of soldiers from many states, both North and South, who fought at Brice’s Crossroads.

On June 10, 1864, the Union Army initiated the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads with one aobjective – to make it impossible for Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest to interfere with General William T. Sherman’s railroad supply line from Nashville to Chattanooga durning the Atlanta campaign. Union troops, under General Samuel D. Sturgis, marched out of Memphis to hold Forrest in Northeast Mississippi. Outnumbered more than two to one, Forrests’s men routed the Union troops. The battle was considered a major tactical victory for the Confederacy. Events “Children’s Discovery Day and ” Living History” are held annually in June each year.

A living history and reenactment of the battle is held annually on the anniversary weekend.

Phone: 662-842-1341
Fax: (662) 842-3215
Email: pvtjohnallen@fws.gov
www.fws.gov/pvtjohnallen/
Hours: Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.

The Private John Allen National Fish Hatchery is a scenic outdoor facility where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service propagate native fish for use in restocking programs. Each year, millions of fish are hatched here.

A 1904 Victorian house which was the home to hatchery superintendents for many years is located at the site. The grounds of the hatchery are beautifully manicured with turn-of-the-century plantings. Reminisce as you walk through Grandmother’s Garden and the wildlife area, which has been planted with foliage to attract nature’s friends. The house is now supervised and maintained by the Tupelo Garden Club and is available for teas, weddings, luncheons, picnics and other events. Tours are available upon request.