Where does the time go? Another year is almost in the books with the holiday season arriving upon us as fast as a Santa’s sleigh rooftop landing on Christmas morn. Speaking of rooftop landings, we in Tunica had a major rooftop landing this week with the arrival of the Gateway to the Blues Visitor Center marquee sign. The placement of this sign atop the new visitor center and gift shop located in a restored 1895 vintage train depot from Dundee, MS marks just one in our destinations many efforts to diversify our tourism economy. Tunica is famously known for our rise from the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, where The Blues was born, to one of America’s premiere gaming destinations. It is our hope that this new visitor center attraction alongside US Highway 61 will give the millions of visitors to our area a glimpse into the role the Mississippi Delta has played in shaping the music all of us listen to each day on the radio.
Today, this new facility is home to a Tunica Blues-themed gift shop and a visitor center complete with travel counselors ready to arm visitors with all the information they need to enjoy their time in Tunica and along the Mississippi Blues Trail. Coming in 2012 will be the construction of the Gateway to the Blues Museum that will be accessible from the new center. This 4,000 square foot museum will utilize the collection once housed in the Blues & Legends Hall of Fame Museum inside the Horseshoe Casino Tunica. This collection will be retooled to tell the story of The Blues and serve as the gateway to the Mississippi Delta Region’s Blues product.
As we end this year and prepare for new and exciting things in 2012, we invite all of our Tunica visitors to stop by and experience our new roadside attraction. Who knows, you might just find something to help fill Santa’s sleigh and make someone’s holiday season just a bit Blues-ier!
To see more photos of the new gift shop merchandise, visit our Facebook album here.
Check out the time lapse video of the new neon Gateway to the Blues sign being installed below.
