Grand Opening of River Museum Today

The Lower Mississippi River Museum and Riverfront Interpretive Site.

Today at 9:00 a.m. was the grand opening of the Lower Mississippi River Museum and Riverfront Interpretive Site.  The building, boat and grounds are a $23 million dollar facility.  The main attraction is the retired MV Mississippi IV, where exhibits simulate life abroad a towboat and piloting the vessel on the river.

In the main building, a mural of Vicksburg's riverfront circa 1910 adorns a wall.  Other indoor exhibits simulate how the river's movement over time since 1775 had created oxbow lakes between Mississippi and Louisiana and one that tells the story of cultures on the river in the 17th century to the 1950s.

Behind the main exhibit hall is a scale model of the river between Greenville and Natchez that children can play on.  It holds about 2 inches of water to represent normal stages and about 5 inches to represent a flood.

Ground was broken for the center in 2009.  The concept began in l995, when the city purchased the retired towboat for $1.  The title was returned to the Corps in 2007, when the vessel was slow-rolled down Washington Street to the museum site at Washington and Jackson streets.

Below are some pictures I took of the interior of the museum and will post pictures of the MV Mississippi tomorrow.

A seated area showing a movie of the Great Flood of 1927.

The 1927 flood is described as one of the greatest domestic travesties in the United States, The Great Flood of 1927 not only impacted the lives of several hundred thousand people, but dramatically changed the focus of flood risk management.  As you explore the museum, you will learn about his devastating flood and meet some of the refugees that suffered through it.
 

Vicksburg, ca. 1400

Vicksburg, 1792

Vicksburg, 1825

Vicksburg, 1950

Looking out the corner window of a classroom with the Yazoo & Mississippi River Valley Depot in the background.   

A model on making a flood.

Timeline.

A huge fish tank inside the museum.