A barricade has gone up in front of the old Leonard’s building on the south side of the Courthouse Square and workers have begun removing the roof and in preparation for the forthcoming Mississippi Native American Museum.
Plans call for presenting the history of the 21 known Indian tribes that lived in Mississippi and highlighting the Kosciusko connection with the Natchez Trace Parkway.
“This is a multi-year project and it will require the support of the citizens of Attala County. When completed it will be a first class museum that will add tourists and tourism dollars to our community,” said Hollis Cheek, a member of the steering committee at the time it was formed in the summer of 2016.
The building was donated to the city in 2015 for a proposed museum. Funds were approved by the legislature in 2016 and a total of $1,000,000 was set aside for the project, half from the Department of Archives and History and half from bonds approved by the state.
The total project, which includes road repairs and bike lanes on Huntington Street from the visitor’s center to the Leonard’s building, is expected to cost around $8 million.
Canizaro, Cawthon and Davis of Jackson – which has completed jobs including the BB King Museum, Mississippi Children’s Museum and the Mississippi Delta Museum – was hired onto the project in early 2017. Local architect Art Cook is also working in the project.
“We will be looking to repair the building and make it structurally sound with this round of money,” Cockroft said at the time.
In the master plan, the museum is described as a facility that will have a “dual identity” as a Native American interpretive site and a Natchez Trace interpretive site. The museum will include exhibits, hands-on activities, demonstration areas and retail opportunities.
“This is the first step on what will be a journey to bring tourism to our community as economic development.” Cheek said during the planning phase.
