Biloxi Light Tours
After touring the 5-year-old, 24,000-square-foot Biloxi Visitors Center, which features a museum and two orientation videos on Biloxi’s heritage and comeback from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, groups of six to eight people at a time ascend the 57 steps to the top of Biloxi Light, Biloxi’s enduring symbol of strength.
When it was built in 1848, the Biloxi Lighthouse, often called simply Biloxi Light, was one of the first cast-iron lighthouses in the southern United States. Given the local weather, the cast-iron structure lined with bricks morphs into a large cylindrical oven during the day, so tours must conclude by 10:30 a.m. at the latest, even in the winter, for the safety of visitors.
The lighthouse is known for being kept by female keepers for more time than any other lighthouse in the United States, with Mary Reynolds, the Civil War-era keeper, noted for ascending the stairs even during storms so fierce they kept men away from the tower, which has withstood multiple Category 5 hurricanes. During Hurricane Katrina, a full one-third of the lighthouse was underwater.
B.B. King Museum and Interpretive Center
Located in a restored cotton gin building in Indianola where B.B. King himself worked in the 1940s, the B.B. King Museum and Interpretive Center tells stories not only of the music legend, but also of the culture that birthed, shaped and sustained him.
King was instrumental in developing the museum, from selecting its site to curating it. The museum centers around materials he donated, such as the effects from his home studio, which has been re-created down to his daily bowl of oatmeal. King’s body is interred at a memorial garden outside the museum. In addition to King artifacts, the museum also brings visitors into the history and life of King and his contemporaries with interactive exhibits that allow guests to play a replica of King’s guitar.
Due to the high number of interactive exhibits, communications coordinator Evonna Lucas said groups typically take a self-guided tour of the museum over one and a half or two hours, with docents stationed throughout to answer questions. Staff can arrange for a lunch and a blues performance following the tour at the museum’s private music venue, Club Ebony.
