Union County: Trails Through Nature and History

In Union County, discoveries range from wooded walking paths and riverbanks to stories reaching back many thousands of years. New Albany is home to several cultural and recreational destinations, including the Union County Heritage Museum and Park Along the River. If you’re looking for a vacation rental, you can first consider whether a stay focused on these places or a trip along the longer Tanglefoot Trail better suits your plans.

River Trails and Routes of Different Lengths

Park Along the River in New Albany offers nearly three miles of walking paths through wooded areas and across the Tallahatchie River. This makes it possible to combine a visit to the river with a more manageable route. The paved Tanglefoot Trail offers a different scale: It is 43.6 miles long, passes through Union, Pontotoc, and Chickasaw Counties, and connects New Albany, Ecru, Pontotoc, Algoma, New Houlka, and Houston. Comparing the park paths with a route that connects several communities can help you define the kind of outing you’re looking for.

In New Albany, the Tallahatchie Trail runs through Park Along the River and along the banks of the Little Tallahatchie. It connects several outdoor recreation destinations. The New Albany Disc Golf Course starts in the park, follows the Tallahatchie Trail to the BNA Sportsplex, is rated moderate, and is free to play. In the same city, you can choose between walking paths and a dedicated disc golf course for time outdoors.

For a longer look at the landscape, the Tanglefoot Trail section between New Albany and Houston passes through forests, streams, waterways, fields, and low-lying areas. The trail also crosses the area William Faulkner described as a “little postage stamp of native soil.” This literary connection adds a cultural dimension to the route without reducing the landscape to a single image.

Museum, Literature, and Rural Culture

The Union County Heritage Museum in New Albany has six galleries, a library, and a gift shop. Its outdoor area, Frenchman’s Bend, offers an interactive look at Mississippi’s rural culture. Its features include agricultural exhibits, public art, and the Storyteller’s Chair, as well as an early 20th-century doctor’s office, a blacksmith shop, and a 1950s body shop. Varner’s Country Store and an art house with a ceramics studio are also part of the outdoor area.

Literature and nature come together in the William Faulkner Literary Garden. Established in 2005, the garden contains plants referenced in Faulkner’s literary works. Faulkner was born in New Albany in 1897; the William Faulkner Library at the museum is a reference library open to the public. Together, these places show different aspects of the literary connection: his birthplace, plant motifs, and a library for exploring literature.

The exhibits also reach far beyond the city’s more recent history. The museum displays stone tools representing around 10,000 years of the county’s past, as well as Smithsonian Institution objects associated with the Ingomar Mound Site. A permanent exhibit includes Late Cretaceous fossils and remains of Pleistocene megafauna, including mastodon, woolly mammoth, saber-toothed tiger, and short-faced bear. For current museum visitor arrangements, it’s a good idea to check with the museum in advance.

Historical Traces in Union County

Ingomar Mound is the surviving mound at a site that once comprised 14 mounds from the Middle Woodland period. The Ingomar Mounds are about 2,200 years old and are considered the oldest documented human-made site in Union County. The connection between the site, its period, and the museum exhibit makes it a tangible starting point for exploring the region’s long history.

New Albany’s Downtown Historic District includes commercial, financial, and government buildings that document the city’s development from 1890 to 1946. The district is significant to Union County. The Union County Courthouse was designated a Mississippi Landmark on October 7, 1986, individually added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 26, 1990, and later included as part of the Downtown Historic District. The region’s music history also has a personal connection: Leon Pinson was born in Union County on January 11, 1919, and was a member of the Silvertone Quartet, among others, in New Albany.

Further connections to railroad history can be found at the Union County Heritage Museum and Crossing on the Green Railroad Park. The museum displays a historic Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight car associated with the railroad history of New Albany and Union County. The park is next to the BNSF rail line and features a train-watching platform and a picnic area, where visitors can watch trains pass through town. For current visitor arrangements at the park, check with the museum.

Choose Your Stay Based on What You Want to See

If you’re primarily interested in visiting the museum, historic sites, and recreational destinations in New Albany, you can focus your vacation rental search on those places. For the Tanglefoot Trail, it’s worth first considering the route you want to take and the communities it connects. This way, choosing a base starts with the question of which experiences you want to shape your stay, rather than an unsupported assumption about distances or travel times.

Another way to experience culture and city life is the annual Tallahatchie Riverfest in New Albany. The program includes open-air concerts and food vendors, among other things; offerings may vary from year to year. Check the event dates and program before your trip.

Discover more destinations: New Albany, Attala County, Prentiss, Forrest County, Jackson County, Lauderdale, Kemper County, Jones.

For the main travel overview: Mississippi.