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HISTORY
■SI EWSLEXTER
Spring 2014	Volume	56,	No.	1
2MM Construction Underway
More than 100,000 cubic yards of dirt have been excavated from the site of the 2 Mississippi Museums since work began in December, with another 20,000 to go. The east side, along Jefferson Street, has been graded and smoothed. Workers continue to excavate the west side while installing a wall of auger-cast piles that will support the hill and protect the underground parking lot. Seventy-foot-long augurs have begun drilling holes for the 1,700 steel-reinforced concrete piers that will support the buildings’ foundations.
Two tower cranes, each with a 244-foot reach, will be assembled and used to move
materials across the entire site as the buildings grow.
When construction began, MDAH lost the use of the Winter Building parking lot, which now houses the project headquarters for Thrash Commercial Contractors, Inc., and its contractors. While patrons may find parking on North and Amite streets along either side of the building, there have also been spaces reserved behind the War Memorial Building specifically for public visiting the Winter Building. If you plan to visit the Winter Building and require a handicapped-accessible spot, please contact MDAH at 601-576-6850 or at info@mdah.state.ms.us to ar-
range for parking behind the building.
“We are so pleased that Thrash has been able to stay on schedule in spite of the harsh weather conditions the workers endured in January and February,” said MDAH Museum Division director Lucy Allen.
Phase one, the shell of the two museums, is expected to be completed in summer 2015. Phase two, interior construction, will last sixteen months. The Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum will open in 2017. To follow construction progress, go to 2mississippimuseums.com or mdah.state.ms.us.
Trail To Highlight Indian Heritage
A driving route due to be completed by year’s end will link more than forty American Indian sites in the Delta and give motorists a glimpse into ancient ‘ cultures. The Mississippi Mounds Trail will run through fifteen counties and highlight the engineering genius and artistic vision of the people who created these earthworks hundreds of years before Columbus first came ashore in the Caribbean.
The fi,rst sites on the trail are in DeSoto County in the northernmost part of the state. The Mississippi Delta is home to more than one thousand mound sites—far more than could be included in any single tour. The trail closes in Wilkinson County, on the Louisiana state line.
The mounds at the Grand Village in Natchez, at Pocahontas between Jackson and Yazoo City, and at Winterville Mounds near Greenville will be directly
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