Looking Back Mississippi

Towns and Places

Forrest Lamar Cooper

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781617031489
• eBook ISBN: 9781628469479
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Essays
• Index: Literature

For the past three decades, historian and archivist Forrest Lamar Cooper has written a regular column for Mississippi Magazine about unusual, fascinating aspects of the state's history, culture, products, and people. Whether describing the Jubilee Beverage Company of Jackson, the origins of the Mississippi State Fair, a Mississippi veteran who fought at Iwo Jima, or Biloxi's Riviera Hotel, Cooper's "Looking Back" columns are thoroughly researched and written with verve and clarity. Looking Back Mississippi: Towns and Places collects thirty-nine of Cooper's best essays on the various cities, towns, dwellings, parks, and institutions of historical resonance. Covering all corners of the state, from the mid-1800s to the 1930s, the volume offers an engaging, convivial alternative history of Mississippi, one that emphasizes the obscure and small-scale over the big picture. Each short essay is accompanied by photographic and illustrative postcards from Cooper's private collection. These postcards and other memorabilia give delightful visual clarity to Cooper's historical accounts of towns as far north as Hernando and as coastal as Pass Christian, from the Delta to the Pine Belt. Cooper focuses on Mississippi places, and the people and events that made them famous. Much of the architecture and even the terrain—as with the Gulf Coast's once legendary orange groves—has disappeared, making Cooper's postcards invaluable resources for understanding and visualizing what no longer exists. Looking Back Mississippi provides a treasure trove of history and insight into long-vanished corners of the state.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• The Heart of the Delta
• Beulah Land
• The Last Spa
• In the Right Place at the Right Time
• Streetcars in Columbus
• The Coldest City in the State
• Chautauqua Assembly
• Greetings from Lake Cormorant
• Influential Florence
• An Early Look at Downtown Greenwood
• Mississippi Citrus
• Where the Lights Live
• High Cotton in Gulfport
• Hardy Loved Hattie—and There’s a City to Prove It
• The Gentleman from Rock Rose
• Famous Houston
• Jackson: 175 Years of History
• Merriment and Memories on the Midway: The Mississippi State Fair
• Brave and True
• The Star of Creation
• Famous Warrior Friend
• Making His Mark
• Almost a Ghost Town
• A Brief History of Mize
• The Bell of St. Mary’s
• A Town of Two Counties
• Fort Henry
• The Destruction of Purvis
• Where Families Gathered
• Sardis, Prince of Joy
• The Heart of Oktibbeha
• Molders of Men
• Washington: The Most Honorable Name
• Wesson’s Wishes
• Christmas in Wiggins
• Steeped in History
• Yazoo Toys and Trolleys
• A Lesson in Flowers
• Named in Her Honor