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. 

More Treasures! Smith's Appliances, Magnolia Road, Vicksburg (Abandoned Films 05d)

Smith's Appliances on Magnolia Road in Vicksburg sells old machines, freezers, and odd treasures. I love places like this, and Mr. Smith generously let me take photographs inside during 2020 when I was on one of my episodes of exploring around town.

As you can see, Mr. Smith emphasizes gasoline and motor-oriented artwork and souvenirs. There were also some household appliances, and I assume he repairs and sells them. 

I took the black and white photograph on my last roll of Panatomic-X film with my Leica M2 camera with 35mm and 50mm Summicron lenses. I measured the light with a Gossen Luna-Pro Digital in incident mode. This roll was grainy and underexposed compared to the previous one that I used in the Adolph Rose Antiques. I assume this roll had aged too much despite having been (supposedly) frozen in storage. It is a warning that expired film is always a bit of a gamble. But the grittiness works well for this type of topic; please click any frame to see more detail.

Treasures! The Adolph Rose Antiques, Vicksburg, Mississippi (Abandoned Films 05c)

Adolph Rose Building in the center the block (Cooper Post Card Collection, from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History) 

Clay Street view east with Adolph Rose Building to the left (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

Adolph Rose Antiques occupied the first two floors of the historic Adolph Rose Building at 717 Clay Street in Vicksburg. This handsome brick structure is one of the finest remaining examples of a multi-floor commercial building of the type that demonstrated Vicksburg's commercial ascendancy and prosperity in the late-1800s. 

In 2006, the adjoining building at 515 partly collapsed when some workmen were starting some form of renovation. I wrote about the mess in 2011. No one was hurt, and the damage to the Adolph Rose building was repaired. Now the lot is empty (see the photograph above).

Sadly, Malcolm and Karen sold the Adolph Rose in 2021 and closed their long-running antique store. Before their going-out-of-business sale, they generously let me explore inside with my camera. (Click any picture to expand it and see details.)

Ground floor of Adolph Rose Antiques (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

Rear (north side) of ground floor (Panatomic-X film, Leica M2 camera)

The street-level (ground) floor occupied half of the structure. On the other side of the long wall is the Strand Theatre. The Strand is active and is a venue for independent films and live productions from the Westside Theatre Foundation. The building was remodeled to include the Strand in 1934, and the cinema was active for decades.

Scales, cookware, a wringer-clothes washer, James Dean's toilet - it was all available here. I did not check if the old tube radios worked. 

Old-fashioned shoe lasts to prevent leather shoes from curling when stored in the closet. How many of you readers have used shoe lasts? They really do prolong the life of shoes, cowboy boots, and hiking boots.

The glassware was backlit near the back wall. Nice display.

Sturdy stairs lead up to the second floor. Up here, the antiques occupy the entire width of the building. This was a nice, airy space.

Books and LP records were on the second floor. None of the LPs interested me as they were rather romantic or schmaltzy 1960s offerings, but there likely is a market.

This ends our brief exploration of the Adolph Rose Antiques.

Several apartments are on the floors above, but they had tenants and were off limits. I do not know if the new owners of the Adolph Rose will continue to rent the apartments.

I wrote about a similar treasure/antique store on Halls Ferry Road in 2013. Sadly, that store closed in 2014 and all the neat items disappeared somewhere.

I took most of these 2020 photographs on 35mm size Kodak Panatomic-X film using my Leica M2 camera with 35mm or 50mm ƒ/2 Summicron lenses. Panatomic-X is a slow film, but that is what was loaded in my camera. This was one of my three last rolls and was in perfect condition. The light was a mixture of side-lighting from the tall windows along with tungsten and halogen bulbs overhead. I bounced flash off the ceiling, but it was so far above the furniture, I suspect there was minimal extra fill. Most were 1 sec. exposures, tripod-mounted. The traditional Panatomic worked well for this type of subject matter with just the right graininess (please click any frame to see more details). All comments welcome. Please see earlier articles dealing with other abandoned (discontinued) films.

Wandering around Upper Clay Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Clay Street view west (Panatomic-X film, Hasselblad 250mm Sonnar lens, 1/15 ƒ/8.0½)

Clay Street is the major east-west road through Vicksburg. Before Interstate 20 (I-20) was completed in the early 1970s, US 80 came into town on Clay Street. A driver heading west would drive on Clay to downtown, turn left on Washington Street, and drive south to the old Mississippi River bridge.

I label the part of Clay Street just west of the Vicksburg National Military Park as upper Clay, while the area downtown near the Yazoo Canal is lower Clay. Here we will look at some scenes in upper Clay. Decades ago, private homes lined the street, but now it is strip America of the ugliest sort. You car, tire, and muffler repair shops, check-cashing and title-loan places, a few real estate offices, abandoned buildings, a dead A&P super market, derelict historic homes, and fast food emporiums. Empty lots show where houses once stood. A former resident labeled this "the ugliest street in America." Well, maybe not the ugliest, but certainly a contender. 

The Eastview Apartments, situated between Clay Street and Baldwin Ferry Road, are low income housing subsidized by the federal government via HUD (Housing and Urban Development). They are unusual construction, being suspended between telephone poles that were driven into the ground on the steep hillside. It was a practical solution compared to grading flat terraces and pouring concrete slabs. 

Eastview Apartments with Stouts Bayou in foreground (Panatomic-X film, Hasselblad, 50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens, green filter)

Stouts Bayou flows under Clay Street through some form of culvert or tunnel because it emerges out of the hillside below the Eastview Apartments. This is kudzu jungle. It needs a cleanup by goats.

Warfield's ServiceCenter, at 2910½ Clay Street, has served customers for over 30 years. Good people.

 

One of the nondescript street running into Clay Street from the north is Hope Street. The proprietor at A & V Discount Tobacco & Beer generously let me take a photograph.

The long-unused Parkview Regional Medical Center building looms over the area north of Clay Street. It has been vacant since 2002, except for homeless who occasionally find ways to enter.

Mercy Hospital, Grove St. (Kodak Super-XX film, Tachihara 4×5" camera, 90mm ƒ/6.8 Angulon lens)

The Sisters of Mercy, who have a long history of care in this town, originally built Mercy Hospital in 1957. The present owners have tried to sell it but with no results. Who wants an obsolete hospital building considering the cost to renovate and upgrade electricity, exits, stairwells, and utilities? Externally, it looks intact, but I do not have information on the roof or the interior. 

When I took photographs in the parking lot in the rear, the neighbors came by and said they watch for vagrants. The police come, clear away the homeless, and then they return later.

Further west is a short segment of Crawford Street. This is not the main Crawford Street downtown but a short detached section running directly next to Stouts Bayou. The houses are on the south side of the road and have access via wood bridges. I photographed more of the Crawford Street region during my tour of neglected Vicksburg houses (Nov. 16, 2020 article).

1517 Main Street (Panatomic-X film, Hasselblad 501CM camera, 80mm lens, 1/8 sec. ƒ/8.0½)

Main Street is one of Vicksburg's historic streets. It is still lined with old houses, but one by one, they have been condemned and demolished. This house at 1517 looks pretty good, and I do not know its issues.

This ends our short tour of upper Clay Street. Standby for more Vicksburg photographs soon. Thank you all for riding along.

Abandoned House on MS 27, Vicksburg, Mississippi

In early 2021, a friend told me about his grandmother's country store on MS Highway 27 somewhere northwest of Utica. I did not find it initially, but came across another abandoned house with an address of 6494. It was accessible because the power company had trimmed the trees and brush under the power lines. 

There is nothing too special about this house; it is an example of a modest domicile of the type built in large numbers in the early 20th century. It still had siding of asphalt shingles, similar to roof shingles. This was common on mid-income housing, and I recall seeing many triple-decker apartments in Medford and Chelsea, Massachusetts, with this type of shingle exterior.

The first photograph is from Kodak Panatomic-X film in a Hasselblad with 50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens. The two lower photographs are 4×5"Tri-X negatives using a 90mm ƒ/6.8 Angulon lens.

Last Time Ever: 135-size Kodak Panatomic-X (Abandoned Films 05b)

Dear readers, this is it, the last time for 135 size Kodak Panatomic-X film. I exposed my last roll in and around Vicksburg and will likely never use any again (although I still am using 120 format rolls for medium format cameras). The Panatomic-X from eBay sellers is usually older than the rolls I used, and they almost never have information on how it was stored. Here are some examples from this last roll of the famous Panatomic-X. I exposed it at exposure index (EI) = 20 and sent it to Northeast Photographic in Bath, Maine, to develop.

 

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Cherry Street bridge, Feb. 16, 2021 (Jupiter-8 lens, yellow filter, 1/30 ƒ/8)

This was one of our two unusual snowfalls in February.

Kroger supermarket, Pemberton Blvd. (Leitz 5 cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, deep yellow filter, 1/100 ƒ/4)

This is the site of the short-lived K-Mart store, which was poorly run and seldom had customers. This is a new building because the Kroger company tore down the K-Mart structure.

Pemberton Blvd., Vicksburg (Leitz 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, deep yellow filter)

Parking lot north of Bunge terminal, Levee Street, Vicksburg (Summitar lens, ½ sec ƒ/11.5)

Kansas City Southern rail yard, Levee Street (Leitz Summitar lens)

"America" moored at the Vicksburg Waterfront, view down Grove Street (Leitz Summitar lens)

Kansas City Southern rail yard, Levee Street (Jupiter-8 lens, yellow filter, 1/20 ƒ/11)

Port of Vicksburg

Vicksburg Forest Products (formerly Anderson-Tully)

Vicksburg Forest Products, view north (Jupiter-8 lens, deep yellow filter)

Ergon Bio-fuels, Haining Road (Summitar lens)

DTE PetCoke company, 745 Industrial Drive

DTE is at the north end of Industrial Drive. I often bike there, and one of the ladies who works at DTE has given me bottles of chilled water on hot days. DTE stores and handles pulverized petroleum coke.

Falco Lime from Port Terminal Circle (Leitz Summitar, 1/60 ƒ/5.6)

Louisiana

Port of Lake Providence, Louisiana (Jupiter-8 lens, deep yellow filter)

Former cotton gin, Tallulah

Barn on Rte 602 near Tallulah (Jupiter-8 lens)

Po-Boy Don's, Louisiana Rte. 602 near Tallulah

Summary

 

This ends my Expired Film Treasures (Films from the Dead) series as it pertains to 35mm size. This has been a fun exploration, but I want to concentrate on contemporary films and stop experimenting. 

• Panatomic-X was a beautiful film and very characteristic of the 20th century black and white aesthetic. 
• The last two rolls of Panatomic-X that I used were more grainy than I remember. Possibly this is a result of development, but more likely it is a result of the film being 30 years old.
• Today, Fuji Acros, Ilford Delta 100, and Kodak TMax 100 have a higher and more convenient film speed. They are finer grain and higher resolution, as well, showing the benefits of several decades of photo-chemical research and development. 
• Once you scan film and display it on the web, honestly, it is hard to distinguish different types of black and white film.
• Some of my pictures had out-of-focus areas. There may be a lens alignment problem with my Leica IIIC, and I sent it to DAG camera for a check-up. (Update: the camera is back and I need to test it.)
• I recommend that you do not seek out Panatomic-X film unless you can be sure that the rolls have been frozen all the years. Even then, having been discontinued about 1991 or 1992, it is bordering on being too old, although some bloggers say it has almost indefinite keeping properties.
  

Thank you for reading. Keep exploring your world and take pictures of things, people, or scenes that move you.