Mississippi Government
  
     We had the opportunity to watch all of the branches of Mississippi government in action on our day trip to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi.  Jackson is about 100 miles from our temporary home in Natchez.

The state capitol building in Jackson

     As we began our walk-thru of the capitol, we happened upon the public proclamation by the governor of Voter Registration month.  Given the general national politics involving the issue of voting registration I was suddenly struck by the irony stick.

The governor (seated and with the gray hair) signing the proclamation in the rotunda

     After watching the voter registration month proclamation, we sat in on part of a session of the State Assembly.  Among the issues dealt with during our observation was repeal of a law limiting all school buses to 45 miles per hour (regardless of the speed limit of the highway they are traveling on) and a bill dealing with the issue of the state take over of failing schools.

view from the gallery of the state assembly chamber

     During our visit to the home of the third branch of government, the Supreme Court building, we had a chance to watch an oral argument before the Mississippi Court of Appeals.  The case before the court was an appeal of a conviction for murder and aggravated assault related to a night club shooting.  Reminded me of a past life.





History of a State, a City and its Citizens 

State History

     The Old Capitol building in Jackson has been converted into a Mississippi history museum.  The museum is very well done and it was hard not to learn a lot about the state's history.

the old state senate

the old state Supreme Court

City History

     A major part of the history of Natchez involves the growth and sale of cotton.   Because of the preservation and restoration of some of the large homes in Natchez, we can get a view of what a certain era in the city's history looked like.  Melrose house is part of the National Park system and is a large ante-bellum dwelling that is well preserved because it has been in continuous use since it was built. 

period piece - a couch for an unmarried man and woman to sit in designed to prevent ...

 

 

on display is some of the 1,000 piece china set owned by the original residents

The History of the People of the City
      Our temporary home is located on Cemetery Road.  Nearby is a national veterans' cemetery as well as the cemetery for the City of Natchez.  Local historians have prepared a great CD tour of the city cemetery complete with stories about some of the former residents of Natchez buried there.

The Turning Angel

     The Turning Angel statute stands near the entrance of the cemetery and watches over the graves of five women who tragically died in a fire.

 

     A ten year old girl is buried in this crypt.  She was afraid of the dark so there are stairs that go down to the grave and glass was placed at one end of the underground chamber to let the light in.  Note the small angel who sits on the fence at the top of the stairs watching over the grave.

many grave sites with fancy old iron fences

 

 

Fences with the name of the deceased and items of meaning in the iron work (find the butterfly)

One rose plant on one of the grave sites was still blooming

 Walking always walking
     Despite the cold (Mississippi style cold), we did manage to get our steps in walking at the nearby St. Catherine Creek Wildlife Refuge.  During our walk we encountered an armadillo, an opossum and four deer.