The Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area supports cultural conservation to keep the Hills alive.
Written by Sonia Thompson | Photographed by Danny K Photography
Anyone who has ever snapped a selfie in front of the Oxford mural, read a local historical marker or enjoyed a Thacker Mountain Radio Show may not have realized it, but in doing so, they were experiencing the work of a National Heritage Area.
These kinds of cultural spaces and projects, and others like them in Lafayette County, are funded in part with grants from Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area.
Housed under the National Park Service umbrella, National Heritage Areas are a federal program that support community-driven initiatives. The difference is that unlike national parks where the focus is on wildlife conservation, National Heritage Areas are lived-in landscapes where the emphasis is cultural conservation.
“The idea is that our history, our music and literature, the people who helped shape this area are part of the fabric of north Mississippi’s Hill Country in the same way Yellowstone National Park is to Montana,” said Mary Cates Williams, Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area executive director. “It’s our job to communicate that to our residents and visitors, and to share with them what makes the Mississippi Hills vibrant.”
The program began in 1984 under President Ronald Reagan. In his dedication speech, he referred to National Heritage Areas as “a new kind of national park” that marries heritage conservation, recreation and economic development.
Today, Congress has designated 62 National Heritage Areas (and counting), with three in Mississippi — the Hills, the Delta and the Coast. The Hills covers 19 full counties and portions of 11 others.
State Rep. Clay Deweese, who represents District 12, said supporting the work of the Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area matters to him. “This program takes everything you’d want state and federal dollars to do for the place you call home and elevates it further,” he said. “Local jobs, tourism, and breathing life into small towns — that’s why I love the mission of National Heritage Areas in general, and the Mississippi Hills specifically.”
That mission centers around the Hills’ four interpretive themes — music and literature; African American history; Native American history; and Civil War history.
“Grant projects we fund must focus on one or more of these themes,” said Kent Bain, Mississippi Hills project coordinator. “We welcome ideas that contribute to the mission of preserving, enhancing, interpreting and promoting the cultural and heritage resources within the Mississippi Hills.”
A good recent example of a successful Mississippi Hills partnership is Greenfield Farm Writers Residency. The residency is a project of the Mississippi Lab at the University of Mississippi, and is located between Oxford and New Albany on land that was once William Faulkner’s mule farm.
Greenfield’s mission is to create a fully funded and stipend-supported writer’s residency as a place where creatives — from authors to songwriters to screenwriters — can delve into their work without disruption or expense. The hope is writing created there will go on to amplify Mississippi narratives that connect to larger American truths.
It’s an ambitious undertaking, one that requires millions of dollars of support to become fully realized. The Mississippi Hills so far has funded a historic buildings survey and a cultural landscape study that unearths the past of this specific patch of dirt.
From Chickasaw ownership; to the 1832 Treaty of Pontotoc (which ceded the land to the state); to the 1875 sale to the Parks family (who would later become an arguable model for the Snopes family in Faulkner’s fiction); to the 1938 sale to Faulkner himself; the research lays it out with important context.
It’s that research that will help guide the architectural, landscape, interpretive and land management designs for the retreat. The earth where Greenfield Farm sits is a place rich with answers — about the past and perhaps the future of the Mississippi Hills. That history might have been lost to time or developers, without the vision of Mississippi Lab Director John T. Edge.
“In Faulkner’s day, Greenfield was a working farm,” Edge said. “Through the generous support of Mississippi Hills, we are putting this land back to work. Generations will benefit from this singular investment in the success of Mississippi writers.”
The success of this project is measured in multiple ways, with financial being one of the most important.
“There’s a real economic impact to the work of the Hills,” Williams said.
Since the Mississippi Hills Community Grants Program was initiated in 2016, more than $2 million in grants and special projects has been awarded.
“That funding stays right here in north Mississippi, in our communities,” she said.
The National Park Service says benefits of receiving an NHA designation include
- Leveraging federal funds to create jobs, generate revenue for local governments and sustain local communities through revitalization and heritage tourism.
- Improving quality of life through new or upgraded amenities, unique settings and educational and volunteer opportunities.
- Connecting to natural, historic and cultural sites via educational activities, promoting awareness and fostering stewardship of heritage resources.
- Strengthening a sense of place and community pride by engaging people in heritage conservation activities.
Overall, the benefits and dollars allocated add up to more than the sum of their parts.
“As Southerners especially, we all love to tell stories,” Williams said. “The story the Mississippi Hills tells is important to our cultural identity. We’re working now to keep telling our own story.”
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