Recreation
Great horizons always ahead.
Take a look and you’ll see: A renowned visitor destination has everything you need for a satisfying year-round home.
Take in the sunset at the Jesse Brent Memorial Bridge and look out over the spectacular expanse of land, water and sky. Or take a daytime drive past flourishing agricultural fields stretching in lush lines all the way to the horizon. Wide open, panoramic spaces promising wide open possibilities and opportunity—that’s Washington County.
High-yield crops of creativity: Our history began with that land and water. Carved out by the liquefying glaciers of Canada and North America during the melting of the Ice Age, the young Mississippi River had a habit of washing over its banks, over time depositing such rich alluvial silt that eventually it conjured the most fertile cotton land this side of the Nile. This area would also become fertile ground for artistic imagination, too, for blues artists and writers who conjured their own kind of magic. In fact, Washington County has been the home to more than 100 published writers, including award-winning notables such as Shelby Foote, Ellen Douglas and Walker Percy.
World-famous dining and entertainment: Row after row of abundant crops, rows of brilliant books by local writers, and then there are those rows of names of legendary blues artists inscribed on Walnut Street’s Sidewalk of Fame in Greenville’s lively and historic downtown, where blues are still on the menu nightly. Also on the menu is nationally acclaimed dining at institutions like Doe’s Eat Place owned by the Signa family, in the business since 1903 and dazzling diners and critics at Doe’s since 1940, winning rave reviews in Bon Appetit, Food Network, Southern Living and earning the James Beard American Classic Award in 2007.
Natural wonders: Visitors come to Washington County from all over the nation (blues lovers come from all over the world) to savor the food, music and entertainment, or to soak up the natural beauty at a premiere state park, lakes and three National Wildlife Refuges, which also make “most” and “best” national lists, whether it’s the gators and whitetail deer at the Yazoo National Wildlife Reserve or the birds at Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge. (In a recent National Audubon Society annual bird count, more avian species were identified in Washington County than in any other inland location in the United States.)
Progressive communities: Visitors also flock to our exciting and luxurious gaming venues. And while we know how delightful it can be to try your luck in a casino, when it comes to creating our communities, Washington County doesn’t leave success to chance. In Greenville, Hollandale, Leland and other communities, goal-oriented schools, friendly neighborhoods and progressive governments are creating a quality of life that is second to none.
When it was built in 2010 to replace a 1940s era structure, the Jesse Brent Memorial Bridge was the fourth-longest cable-stayed bridge in North America, a mammoth creation of concrete and steel, and a testament to man-made genius and quality. That’s how it is in Washington County: Perfect harmonies between man and nature, progress and preservation. Here, you’re always standing on solid ground, whether on a majestic bridge, in a verdant refuge, or inside aspiring schools. It’s that kind of commitment and stability that makes growth possible, and why in Washington County, life’s opportunities are as panoramic as the views.