How many "Mississippis" are there? (Jackson, Hattiesburg: tornado, pine)

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

To me, once a person passes through Jackson on Highway 49, the look and feel of the state seem different. South of Jackson there are pine forests and fruit stands on rolling land. North of there are cow pastures and cropland on rolling land.. Once you get to the Delta, the pastures disappear and of course, farmland spreads out far and wide.

[Listener2307]

And don't forget the Mississippi that exists only in other people's minds!

[brickpatio]

I love this post. I always feel totally different once I get onto Hwy 49 South going towards the Coast.

I can almost smell the salty gulf air and gentle coastal breezes. And the forests Are different, somehow more lush once you get south of Jackson, a perfect mix of pine and hardwoods. Driving south along Hwy 13 south of Mendenhall, and along Hwy 51 south of Crystal Springs...the rolling hills and forests are Beautiful. Truly lush and lovely.

It's true that the hardwood forests and pastureland are found more in the loess hills and rolling pastureland just east of Vicksburg and east of the hills that border the Delta, all the way from Vicksburg north to Grenada and on up to DeSoto County.

Interestingly, the Natchez area is amazingly picturesque with its dense, almost jungle-like, moss-laden hardwood forests amid steep ridges and ravines...but just a few miles east you cross right over into pine forest.

I've always loved the McComb and Brookhaven region with its lovely forests and hills. Another town I find irresistible is Columbia, which to me screams "southern", with the elegant courthouse and wide Pearl river.

Another interesting contrast is Laurel and Hattiesburg. While Hattiesburg is surrounded by particularly dense pine forest, when you get 25 miles north to Laurel it's much more pastureland and oak trees. Then not far north you cross over back into pine forest and hills near Meridian, and then north from there about an hour you cross into the fertile prairie region going towards Columbus and Starkville and on up to Tupelo.

[Dd714]

Mississippi is about 350 miles long, so you have a variety. Lay us north from Memphis and we would reach almost to Chicago. Where I am we don't even call it the deep south or the south, but the "mid-south"...that is, more like the mid-west. We get waves of very dry desert like climate in the summer. It snows. We are in a tornado alley. Go to the east and north of Tupelo and it starts getting hilly.

[pinebud1111]

I'd say there are at least these six Mississippis:


1. The Delta (yazoo river basin).

2. The Loess Hills.

3. The Pine Hills and Coastal Plain

4. The North Central Red Clay Hills

5. The Black Prarie (in Northeastern Mississippi

6. The Northeastern appalacian foot hills.