



Beneath the grand facade of the MSU Riley Center, a restored 1889 opera house, world-class performances unfold in unexpected splendor. The Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience offers interactive exhibits celebrating local cultural heroes, while the historic Temple Theater preserves architectural grandeur from the city's railroad heyday. At Highland Park, the National Historic Landmark Dentzel Carousel spins with its original hand-carved animals – the world's only two-row stationary Dentzel menagerie still in existence. Civil rights history runs deep here, where the federal courthouse hosted the groundbreaking 1966 trial depicted in 'Mississippi Burning.' Music lovers shouldn't miss the Jimmie Rodgers Museum honoring the 'Father of Country Music' born in this resilient southern town.

