Purvis (1908 tornado)

The storm that wrecked Purvis on April 24, 1908, began that morning at Weiss, Louisiana, and cut about 155 miles across two states. It killed 29 at Amite before crossing into Mississippi, where it flattened most of Purvis: only seven of the town's 150 buildings were left standing, and 55 people died. Four railroad workers sheltering in a boxcar near McCallum were killed when the cars were thrown 150 feet. With at least 143 dead it ranks among the deadliest tornadoes in United States history, though the long track may have been two or more storms.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Salmon Site (Tatum Salt Dome) — 11 mi
  The only place east of the Mississippi River where the United States detonated nuclear devices, two underground tests in 1964 and 1966 in Lamar County.
• Mississippi Armed Forces Museum — 12 mi
  The state military museum inside Camp Shelby, where 750,000 soldiers trained for the Second World War, among them the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
• Mount Zion Baptist Church — 14 mi
  Hattiesburg's "Civil Rights Church," a Freedom School site in 1964 where Pete Seeger taught music and Martin Luther King Jr. spoke weeks before his death.
• Longleaf Trace — 14 mi
  A 44-mile paved rail-trail from Hattiesburg to Prentiss on the old Pearl & Leaf Rivers and Mississippi Central line that hauled the Piney Woods timber.

More markers nearby

• Bonhomie — 12 mi
• Pinehills Neighborhood — 12 mi
• John L. Sullivan — 12 mi
• William Carey College — 12 mi