A unique urban park in Jackson seeks to become one of the state’s premier cultural destinations. Encompassing four distinct museums and featuring playgrounds, sports venues, walking and biking trails, family-friendly gathering spaces, and improved access to the Pearl River, the Lefleur Museum District is the mission of the Lefleur’s Bluff Conservancy chaired by Mississippi Children’s Museum founder and Jackson visionary Susan Garrard.
“This master plan really was born of the desire from the Children's Museum to replace the Lefleur’s Bluff playground,” Garrard modestly told the Rotary Club of North Jackson. Already having created one of the nation’s top children’s museums, she had a much bigger dream.
In 2021, the Children’s Museum was one of six recipients awarded the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries that make significant and exceptional contributions to their communities. “We were the youngest museum in the nation,” Garrard said.
“We were really excited about our medal,” she continued. “And we decided that we really, really, really wanted our surroundings here in Jackson to reflect kind of our award-winning ways.”
“How do other cities do that?” she remembered asking. “Other cities do that through conservancies,” she found out. So, she led the formation of the first conservancy in Mississippi, the LeFleur’s Bluff Conservancy, leased 104 acres from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, and got $13 million from the state legislature to, uh, enhance the “surroundings” of the Children’s Museum.
The enhancements include: $1.8 million from the Capitol Complex Improvement District to revamp Museum Boulevard which runs beside I-55; a 30,000‑square‑foot state‑of‑the‑art playground funded by a $3.86 million grant from the Blue Cross & Blue Shield Mississippi Foundation; new entrances to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, the Children’s Museum, and the new playground complex; and extension of the Museum Trail along and through LeFleur’s Bluff.
Still to come are a tournament level disc golf course designed by world champion disc golfer Avery Jenkins; a 10-hole youth walking golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones that will be home to First Tee of Mississippi; lighting for nighttime play; botanical gardens; a fitness park; ball field enhancements; pickle ball courts; and future expansions of the Children’s Museum and the Natural Science Museum.
On August 19th, groundbreaking occurred for a pedestrian and biking bridge over Lakeland Drive to connect the park to Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. Sen. Cindy-Hyde Smith obtained $7 million in federal funding for this project.
Oh, Garrard also founded the Great City Mississippi Foundation to improve the rest of Jackson around the Children’s Museum.
“Let us not become weary in doing good” – Galatians 6:9.
Bill Crawford is an author and syndicated columnist from Jackson.
