Columbus, MS

Although Columbus was named after another explorer, it is likely that Hernando DeSoto was the first European to set foot here in 1540. The Choctaw and Chickasaw referred to the new white settlement as Possum Town, a nickname still used by locals. Fun fact: Columbus was part of Alabama in its early years, until the state line was re-surveyed and the town was found to be in Mississippi. 

During the Civil War, Columbus became a hospital center, using churches and private homes to house the wounded from both sides, and was largely spared from the war’s destruction. The city is the birthplace of playwright Tennessee Williams, home to Columbus Air Force Base and The Mississippi University for Women—known as “The W,” America’s first public college for women. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Eudora Welty began her academic career at The W, writing short stories about the American South. 

Our day began at the Tennessee Williams Home & Welcome Center, the former Episcopal rectory where Thomas Lanier Williams III was born in 1911. He acquired his famous moniker while attending college in Iowa, due to his southern drawl. 

From the Welcome Center we set out on a 16-stop walking tour of antebellum homes nestled between The W and the Tombigbee River, then took a driving tour of the campus before eating lunch at Zachary’s, a bar & grill with great food and a Chicago Cubs-themed decor. 

Lastly, we stopped at Kroger’s grocery store—which of course was mobbed on the afternoon before Thanksgiving—then headed back to Dragonfly to hang out a bit before eating leftovers for dinner and reading and relaxing.