Gateway to the Blues Visitor Center – CVB Open House

By Webster Franklin on Tuesday June 26, 2012

entertainment, museums, specials, tourism, travel, travel-tunica, tunica

The Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau will host an after hours open house this Wednesday, June 27 from 5:30 – 8:00 pm.  Homemade Jamz – The Youngest Blues Band in the Land will be the first ever act to perform live on the Highway 61 – Gateway to the Blues Stage.  The event is geared to expose the members of the Tunica hospitality industry and local population on the opening of the 1^st phase of the Gateway to the Blues Visitor Center, Museum and Office Complex located along US Highway 61.

The new Visitor Center, housed in a restored 1895 train depot and moved from Dundee, MS  to its current site along US 61 opened to the public in the first quarter of 2012.  The opening of this new center called for the reconfiguration of the CVB administrative offices to replace the space once occupied by the former Visitor Center.

The 2^nd phase of the overall Gateway to the Blues project is well underway.  It includes a 4,000 square foot blues museum utilizing the collection once housed in the Blues & Legends Hall of Fame Museum inside Horseshoe Casino Tunica. The museum will be attached to the newly constructed Visitor Center offering the millions of visitors to our area each year with a unique visitor experience at the entrance of America’s Blues Highway 61.

Funded in part by a Transportation Enhancement Grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation, it is expected that bids will be issued this fall with construction complete in 2013.