On East Broad Street in West Point a Mississippi Blues Trail marker and a granite memorial honor Chester Arthur Burnett, known as Howlin' Wolf. He was born on 10 June 1910 in White Station, just north of town, and named for President Chester Arthur. His grandfather gave him the nickname. His early life was hard. Cast out by his mother, he lived with a great-uncle until he ran away at thirteen and rode a train to the Delta.
On the Young and Morrow plantation near Ruleville he found his father, who bought him his first guitar in 1928, and he learned showmanship and songs from Charley Patton. He worked the land through the 1930s, served in the Army from 1941 to 1943, and moved to West Memphis in 1948 for a radio show on KWEM. Sam Phillips recorded him in 1951. In 1953 he moved to Chicago and recorded for Chess. "Smokestack Lightnin'" in 1956 and "The Red Rooster" in 1961 followed, and the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream and others covered his songs. He died on 10 January 1976.
Wolf came home often to hunt and fish and to play West Point's juke joints, Ferdinand Sykes's place on Cottrell Street among them. West Point began a festival in his name in 1996 and opened a museum in 2005. The marker and memorial are outdoors and free to see. Waverley, the plantation house, stands about nine miles east.
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