Ridgeland was enveloped in a wave of gangster-like criminal activity six decades ago that rivals any of Hollywood’s best scripts. more

Between Flora and Canton, just North of Highway 22 sits an antebellum plantation home that has housed four generations of the Howard family and has roots that extend 176 years into the past.
The Sedgewood Plantation manor house was built in 1842 and designed by acclaimed southern architect William Nichols, whose other credits include the Mississippi Governor’s Mansion, the Old Capitol building in Jackson and the Lyceum Building at Ole Miss. The house is an 1842 Greek Revival raised cottage with a center hall floor plan that is typical for homes built in the antebellum period. more

Mississippi thrives as a state tailor made to cultivate folklore, tall tales with deep woods, dreary swamps, and miles of impenetrable brown water and eerie crossroads as a backdrop. One eerie incident in the night sky over Flora during the late-1970s is one of those, replete with recorded witnesses and a paper trail. more

The Opera House in Canton, Mississippi was built in 1853 as a place for live entertainment. After a fire burned most of the original two-story building, the Opera House became a focal point in Canton. more

The Mississippi Ordnance Plant had its moment of glory for four years, a claim on history for the duration of the United States’ involvement in World War II. Since then, its purpose as an industrial park and storage facility means its brief history may become as lost as its crumbling warehouses. Presley Posey, former branch manager for the Flora Public Library, said, “I was born and grew up near here. My family owned land near there. The United States military needed plants to make gun powder and so they bought 7,000 acres and moved the farmers off that land.” To be precise, 139 families of 511 people were relocated in order to build the Mississippi Ordnance Plant. more

The Canton History Museum is just the latest addition to Canton’s celebration of its unique and colorful history. This museum boasts exhibits made to immerse its audience in Canton’s past. Jana Dear of the Canton Visitor’s Center says, “The space used to be a museum for our Christmas Festival, but we converted it to history. It contains vignettes of Canton’s history. The museum is also interactive in that you can buy bottles of Coke. We consider it a tribute to those who have contributed to our history. We have the Square because of these people and the businesses they started.” more

World War II was one of the largest mobilizations of manpower and machinery in human history. It built up cities like Mobile and others, but some quiet places saw their share of activity as well, including Madison at a site just off Old Canton Road. more

Gluckstadt – the lucky city so nice the original residents bought it twice. For more than a century, the German influenced land just north of Madison and south of Canton wedged between Highway 55 and 51 has been an unincorporated slice of paradise for many. The town dates back to the early 1900s when German immigrants found their way south after first coming to Indiana. In 1905 Henry Klaas, John Kehle, Valentine Fitsch, Peter Schmidt and Joseph Weilandt all bought farmland from the Highland Colony Company out of Calhoun. The initial “Gluckstadt” investors paid a handsome sum of $22,000 for the promised land. Nine families first moved to the area with their farming tools, knowledge and livestock. They came by train in what was known as “immigrant cars’ and they worked the land as dairy and row crop farmers. The Minningers and Weisenberger families were part of the initial crew that settled the area. more

It is tough to tell where a conversation with Jim Lacey will go, but the information one can glean from sitting with the unofficial historian of Canton is both fascinatingly compelling in its content and often overwhelming in its width and breadth. more

In a little corner near Canton, there stands one of the oldest churches in Mississippi. Its parsonage, bought in 1836, was the first of its kind in the region. The institution itself dates back to 1835 and the church’s building to 1892. Many believe the church to be the namesake of the local town of Sharon. Its cemetery is occupied by many loyal Methodist families, as well as one of Mississippi’s earliest unsolved mysteries: the curious grave of Sarah N. Burns. Sharon has survived the Civil War and the fall of two local colleges. After the railroads came and went, taking much of the town’s population with them, still Sharon stands. more

A Madison man was stunned to find boxes of old engraving plates in his shed, one of which might include a rare portrait of John F. Kennedy while he was campaigning for president. more

Within a block of Canton’s historic square is an addendum to the new history seen developing around the state, craft legal alcohol. more

There is a little Episcopal country church in Madison County, Mississippi, called The Chapel of the Cross. The church building itself is as beautiful as its name, and it is widely recognized as one of the finest examples of Nineteenth Century Gothic Revival church architecture in the United States. more

Madison County and the surrounding area is choc full of antique items with plenty of outlets for folks to find just what they’re looking for. And you just never know what you may run across – Civil War era items, European pieces with unique histories or just great items to fill your home space. Pette’s Antiques’ Pette Montgomery has 3,000-square feet of European pieces and has been in the business for the better part of three decades. more