Photos

A street corner in Leland, MS.

Leland is about 15 miles west of my hometown of Indianola.
The Mississippi Delta is a bit of a backwater. I don't want to say it has nothing to offer. For me, it has always been home. However, it seems that the towns of the delta are in various stages of decay. In terms of what they offer in the way of shopping(both day to day and pleasure type), services(hospitals, schools, banks, churches), residences, education and culture most towns in the delta fall rather short.
Local residents may raise objections, but I would say Leland is probably one step up from the bottom. Most of the businesses there serve only the local poplulation. There is one restaurant I am aware of that is popular with people from surrounding towns. I do not know if the town has a grocery store or a local newspaper.
The downtown area, the location of my photo, is rather dead. There are businesses there, but still it cannot be called healthy. I go there to get my hair cut. It is the only place around that I know of where you can get a cut for 10 dollars. I was quite surprised to discover how clean the downtown steets are.

Leland does claim at least one celebrity son: Jim Henson, who became famous for creating the Muppets. There is a little museum there dedicated to Henson and his work.
The town straddles Dear Creek: a significant tributary of the Yazoo River which in turn flows into the Mississippi River at Vicksburg. The Mississippi continues south to New Orleans and empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
It has become a tradition each year at Christmas for several fine homes along the banks of the creek in Leland to be opened to the public for tours.
A historical marker on Deer Creek in Leland claims that the banks of the waterway were inhabited as early as 1200 A.D. by an agricuturally based pre-historic "indian"(that is, native american) culture. A railroad once ran through Leland. U.S. Highway 82, the only major east-west road running across northern Mississippi, passes through Leland and under the tracks. I don't think the train still runs through Leland, but I'm not sure. Like most of the delta, the economy is predomiantly agricultural.
Mississippi State University has a major agricultural research center in Leland. I am not sure how the center came to be located there.

Leland is at the crossroads of Highway 82, previously mentioned, and U.S. Highway 61, a major north-south thoroufare. I suspect that, despite its current state, Leland hides an interesting past. The same, I think, can be said of many of the dying (or dead) towns of the delta. They are there for a reason. In fact, a close enough look would almost undoutably yield some surprises lingering still. The obscurity of these hidden gems makes them all the more intriguing.