A Morning of Steam Engines and other Foundry Fun

The hubby had two requests with this World Series: Go to Mississippi and go to the Gulf. I figured if he could possibly get to the gulf with the boys, I wanted to go to Mississippi to cross another state off the list. Well, we couldn't just drive the hour to Mississippi and turn around now, could we. What fun would that be?!?

Since we were in the middle of nowhere Alabama, the middle of nowhere Mississippi was where we going to be headed towards. The closest city with anything worthwhile to do in was Meridian, MS. They had a museum or two plus an interesting downtown (or I've been told). Based on when we were going to be in Meridian, we opted to visit the Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum (MIHM) . It is a mouthful and didn't sound all that exciting to me but it was right up the hubby's alley.

The MIHM is a museum that is housed in the former Soule Steam Feed Works Factory. The only way to see the museum is on a guided tour that is available 3 times a day (9:30, 11:30, 1:30). Based on the comments I read about the museum, I wasn't too concerned that we were running a few minutes late for the 9:30 tour. The museum is located just off of downtown in an industrial area.

We got to the museum a few minutes after 9:30 and no one was there for a tour (like I figured. Not high on many people's lists of things to do in Mississippi). Our tour guide was very knowledgeable. The tour last 90 minutes and initially I thought we were skipping things in the museum but eventually our guide wound us back around to things we skipped and surprisingly they weren't really out of order.

Honestly, it was very fascinating tour. The first part of the tour illustrated the collection of steam engines the museum and Mr. Soule collected over the years. There were all sorts of sizes and functions of the steam engines. Our guide could tell us about each and every one... some he knew more details about than others but many included a story or two.

The rest of the tour was more about the Soule Steam Feed Works Factory which was basically a foundry. We were taken through the foundry production area and saw how they used steam engines in the foundry. Part of it reminded me of the Ox-cart factory in Costa Rica. We were shown the locker room and showers (big deal for these workers) and the offices.

At the very end of the tour, there was a small printing press display which our guide showed us as well as a broom making machine. All very fascinating stuff.

I won't lie it was hot in the building as it was an old foundry and wasn't air conditioned but it was very interesting museum. It may be off the beaten path but sometimes you have to travel those to find these hidden gems. If you ever find yourself in western Mississippi, I would suggest checking out the Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum. It is definitely worth the price of admission.