Tishomingo State Park sits at milepost 304 of the Natchez Trace Parkway in the northeast corner of the state, where Mississippi's flat country gives way to the last southwestern edge of the Appalachian Plateau. Bear Creek has cut through sandstone here, leaving boulders, small caves, cliffs and a canyon unlike anything else in the state. A suspension bridge for walkers swings across the creek, and the trails pass a spring, ferns and the rock walls above Horseshoe Bend.
People have used this ground for a very long time. Archaeologists have found evidence of people in the area as early as about 7000 B.C. The Chickasaw used Saddleback Ridge, now a trail, to travel toward the Freedom Hills of Mississippi and Alabama. The park and the county are named for Tishomingo, a Chickasaw leader, and the Chickasaw were removed after the 1832 treaty of Pontotoc Creek.
The Civilian Conservation Corps built the park. Company 3497 began work in April 1935, and the park opened in May 1939. Much of the CCC work survives, including stone buildings, roads, a pond, cabins and the foundations of the corps camp, which you can still see from a trail. The park is a National Register historic district. It offers hiking, canoeing on Bear Creek, rock climbing with a permit, and camping, with cabins and campsites.
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