Crosby Arboretum included on Great Mississippi Nature Trail

PICAYUNE, Miss. -- The Mississippi State University Crosby Arboretum is a featured stop among a new initiative launched earlier this week that aims to encourage Mississippians and tourists to explore the diverse natural destinations of Mississippi.

The Great Mississippi Nature Trail consists of 20 sites that showcase Mississippi’s natural beauty, ecological richness and cultural history. The trail includes waterfalls, bayous, rail trails, wildlife refuges, rivers, geological wonders and woodlands.

“We are thrilled that the Arboretum has been selected as one of the featured natural areas of the Great Mississippi Nature Trail,” said Pat Drackett, MSU Crosby Arboretum director. “This plant conservatory offers something for everyone -- a day of exploration and learning, quiet solace or ideas for creating their own ecologically based landscapes. We look forward to sharing our public garden and the importance of preserving Mississippi’s natural areas with even more people.”

The Crosby Arboretum is a world-renowned 104-acre native plant conservatory in Pearl River County dedicated to education, research and protection of plant species native to the Pearl River Drainage Basin of south-central Mississippi and Louisiana.

Footpaths wind through the arboretum grounds, which display three basic habitats of the basin’s ecosystem: the Woodland Exhibit, the Savanna Exhibit and the Aquatic Exhibit. The grounds also include multiple architectural structures that enhance the educational experience of visitors and highlight the ecological importance of the exhibits.

The Arboretum’s Pinecote Pavilion is featured on the home page of the trail’s website. The pavilion and the numerous wooden footbridges, which are part of the aquatic exhibit, were designed by the award-winning Fayetteville, Arkansas, architect E. Fay Jones.

The Arboretum is a living memorial to the late L.O. Crosby, Jr., a local forestry figure, civic leader and philanthropist, whose family donated the property to MSU for the creation of the plant conservatory after his death in 1978.

The Great Mississippi Nature Trail is a joint effort between Visit Mississippi, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, the Mississippi Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and Wildlife Mississippi.

For more information about the Arboretum, visit https://crosbyarboretum.msstate.edu. To learn more and to download a map of the Great Mississippi Nature Trail, visit https://www.mississippinaturetrail.com.