Mississippi

The modest two-room house in Tupelo where the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll was born was built for $180 by his father. It is part of the six-hectare Elvis Presley Park, which includes a statue, church and museum.

In a state known as the “birthplace of America's music,” the interactive experience in Cleveland explores the past, present and future of music and celebrates the creativity and technology of the recording process.

Markers around the state highlight people and places with pivotal roles in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and ’60s. Among the sites are Medgar Evers’ home, Fannie Lou Hamer’s grave, a Greyhound Bus Station and Woolworth’s.

The Ocean Springs museum celebrates Walter Inglis Anderson, whose work highlighted the region’s plants, animals and people. Included in the watercolors, drawings, oils, block prints, ceramics and carvings are works by his two brothers.

In 1930, Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner bought the 1840s Greek Revival house and lived there until he died in 1962. Tour the National Historic Landmark in Oxford and see where he wrote several books.

Throughout the state, nearly 200 trail markers tell stories of famous blues artists and significant sites. Find them in cotton fields, train depots, cemeteries, clubs and churches, and see how people, places and culture influenced music.

Visit battlefields, 1,325 monuments, 32 kilometers of trenches and an antebellum home, and learn how the Union gained control over the Mississippi River after a three-month campaign in 1863 during the American Civil War.

Go rock climbing, canoe in Bear Lake, walk a wildflower-bordered trail, fish in the 18-hectare Haynes Lake and stay in a cabin in a wooded bluff area at Tishomingo State Park in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

In Natchez, find the start of the 715-kilometer historic and scenic trail that continues to Nashville, Tennessee. Drive, hike, bike, horseback ride and camp along the way through rolling hills, farmland, thick forests and cypress swamps.

Guide yourself, or join a tour, at the Beaux Arts-style state capitol building and grounds in Jackson. A couple of blocks away, understand how it all began in 1839 at the Old Capitol Museum.