The Mississippi Delta 38b: Hwy 49W and the Belzoni area (XPan 12)

Dear Readers, let's take another look at the Mississippi Delta with the panoramic Hasselblad XPan camera. Please type XPan in the search box to see older articles from Vicksburg, the Delta, Jackson, and Louisiana.

After my drive north on Highway US 49E to the little town of Sidon, I headed west through flat and lonely farm fields on MS 511 (Phillipston Road) and MS 7, finally reaching Morgan City on US49W. Long-term readers may remember that I looked at Morgan City in the Mississippi Delta 23. I also explored junk in the woods in 2015. 

1st Avenue, Morgan City (30mm ƒ/5.6 lens)

This former commercial block has only one building with an intact roof. The dudes were hanging out in the shade and drinking.

Fixer-upper barn, Swiftown (45mm, yellow filter)

Gin, Swiftown (90mm ƒ/4 lens)

Swiftown is not really a town, just an unincorporated community in Leflore County about 7 miles south of Morgan City. The barn next to a trailer was interesting. The cotton gin looks unused.

Head south about 10 miles and you reach Belzoni. 

Junction of MLK Jr. Drive and Church Street, Belzoni

My friend, who grew up in Belzoni, told me that these Quanset huts were restaurants owned by a local Italian family, the Mechattos. They were immigrants from Sicily. My friend's grandmother called them "The Hut." They made wonderful homemade salad dressing. One waitress was called Tootsie. My friend did not know when the family left or stopped operating the restaurant. 

China Street, Belzoni

Much of Belzoni is pretty rough today. And it may no longer be the Catfish Capital of the World. Please click the link for some 2021 photographs of Belzoni.

Thank you all for riding along in the Mississippi Delta.

The Mississippi Delta 38: Spring in the Delta, Belzoni Area

In Spring of 2021, we were restless. Other than day trips, we had been nowhere. The Pandemic was raging and the vaccines had just been introduced. Why not take a short outing to the Mississippi Delta? Pack a lunch, drinks, and a carafe of coffee, and we would not need to go into any stores or restaurants. I loaded my Hasselblad with the long-discontinued Kodak Panatomic-X film and we were off.

Sky Lake Wildlife Management Area is a fascinating wetland containing huge ancient cypress trees, which fortunately were saved from logging. The WMA is located in Humphreys and Leflore Counties a short distance north of Belzoni. A boardwalk lets you walk out into the forest. The woods were flooded, as you can see in the photographs above. 

I have visited Belzoni in 2020 and earlier, but did not make it to the Sky Lake WMA.

There are farms and a few homes near the WMA. This old graveyard and barn was on Lake Road.

On the way home, we took Old Hwy. 49 south past Silver City and Midnight (see my 2020 article).  

Railroad trestle over Silver Creek, Old US 49W, Midnight

We drove south on Old Hwy. 48 into Midnight. Silver Creek winds its way through the central Delta and through town. A railroad once served Midnight; a trestle over the creek is one of the few remains.

There not much left to the town. A crumbling gas station and a small store/juke joint are about it.  
 

Worker hut, Box Plantation, Silver Creek Road, Midnight (Tri-X film, 90mm ƒ/6.8 Angulon lens)

This is a photograph I took in 2020 of a farm workers' hut behind the main house at Box Plantation.

This ends out very short spring visit to the Delta. For more photograph of the Mississippi Delta, type the term in the search box. Thanks for riding along. 

The Mississippi Delta 35: Belzoni

Belzoni is the county seat for Humphreys County, Mississippi. According to Wikipedia, the town was named for Giovanni Battista Belzoni, a 19th-century Italian archaeologist and explorer. How did he end up in the Mississippi Delta? In the 1970s, Belzoni was known as the Catfish Capital of the United States for having a greater percentage of acreage used for catfish production than any other county. I do not know if this is still true, but the city does play up the catfish heritage with statues of smiling catfish at various street corners.

Former catfish factory, Hwy US 49E, Belzoni (Kodak TMax 100 film, Pentax Spotmatic camera, 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

Former catfish packing factory, US 49E (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5 cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

Sadly, the big catfish packing plant has been closed for many years. Many jobs must have been lost when it shut.

Farmers' Grain Terminal (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm ƒ/3.5 lens, yellow filter)

Approaching Belzoni from the south on US 49E, the very impressive Farmers' Grain Terminal complex at 509 Silver City Road dominates the skyline. At some time, these circles were covered with a huge cloth tent and contained corn.

Silver City Rd., Belzoni (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

Silver City Rd., Belzoni (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm ƒ/3.5 lens, yellow filter)

Silver City Rd. (Tmax 100 film, Pentax Spotmatic, 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

Unused gin, Silver City Road, Belzoni (Tmax 100 film, 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

Tamale store (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

Head further into town on Silver City Road and you pass miscellaneous housing, old stores, a closed gin, and an unused silo complex.

W. Jackson St., Belzoni (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

Liquor store on W. Jackson St. (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

E. Jackson St., Belzoni (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

Jackson Street runs E-W through town and may be the traditional "main drag."

Western Auto, East Jackson Street (Moto G5 digital file)

I was pleased that many of the shops are open and conducting some sort of business. There is even a Western Auto still open. I have not seen a Western Auto in a least a decade. According to Wikipedia,

Western Auto Supply Company—known more widely as Western Auto—was a specialty retail chain of stores that supplied automobile parts and accessories. It operated approximately 1200 stores across the United States. It was started in 1909 in Kansas City, Missouri, by George Pepperdine and Don Abnor Davis. Pepperdine later founded Pepperdine University. Western Auto was bought by Beneficial Corporation in 1961; Western Auto's management led a leveraged buyout in 1985, leading three years later to a sale to Sears. Sears sold most of the company to Advance Auto Parts in 1998, and by 2003, the resulting merger had led to the end of the Western Auto brand and its product distribution network.

One of the founders also founded Pepperdine University? Impressive.

Renee's Beauty Supply, 120 E. Jackson St., Belzoni (Tmax 100 film, Pentax Spotmatic, 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

The charming proprietor of Renee's Beauty Supply generously let me take a picture of the healthy beauties outside of her store. I was glad to see on my 2020 visit that Renee's is still open and operating, despite the slowdown from the virus.

Crescent Theater, Hayden Street, Belzoni

The Cresent Theatre on Hayden Street is closed and may be for sale. I was surprised to find a photograph in the Library of Congress archives taken in 1939 by Marion Post Wolcott of the very same side stairway on the Crescent. In the segregated era, it was common for African American patrons to be seated in the balcony. Notice the sign on the narrow door that states "White Men Only."

Segregated movie house, October 1939, by Marion Post Wolcott (Image from the United States Library of Congress Prints and photographs division, digital ID ppmsca.12888)

This has been our short tour of Belzoni, Mississippi. It is an interesting place and worth a visit if you are in the central Mississippi Delta. Thank you for coming along this short trip.