Capital River

Capital River covers the central and southwestern third of Mississippi, the broad agricultural and historic country running from the capital at Jackson southwest to the Mississippi River at Natchez. The terrain shifts from the rolling Loess Hills along the Mississippi River bluffs (Natchez sits 200 feet above the river) east through the till-and-pine country of central Mississippi to the suburban belt around Jackson. The Pearl, Big Black, and Yazoo rivers cut through the region. Eighteen counties cover the region. Hinds holds Jackson, the state capital and the largest city; Rankin holds Brandon and the eastern Jackson suburbs; Madison holds Madison and Canton; Warren holds Vicksburg (the Civil War siege site at Vicksburg National Military Park); Adams holds Natchez (the antebellum mansions of the Natchez Pilgrimage and the southern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway). The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Museum of Mississippi History cluster in Jackson; the Vicksburg battlefield, the antebellum homes of Natchez, and the Natchez Trace Parkway anchor the historical itinerary. Most trips here run civil-rights-and-antebellum themed. Jackson handles the modern history — the Two Mississippi Museums, Medgar Evers’s home, the State Capitol; Vicksburg runs the Civil War circuit; Natchez carries the antebellum mansion tours; the Trace Parkway runs scenic between them.