Mississippi

Until they saw him on television playing the bumbling but loveable farmhand Eb on Green Acres in the late 1960s, almost no one in Tom Lester’s hometown of Laurel, Miss., thought he would become a successful actor in Hollywood.

I decided that one day I would leave my Williamson County (Tenn.) farmhouse, walk to the creek on the edge of my property, board a canoe, and paddle as long as it took to reach the high river banks of New Orleans,” says Guider, 57.

Readers explain why their grandparents are great

An hour before his show, B.B. King relaxes in the back of his luxurious tour bus, his awe-inspiring hands resting atop a pile of tangled wires from his many electronic devices assembled on one table.

Grammy-winning country artist Marty Stuart was attending the Firemen's Carnival in Schaefferstown, Pa., last summer when inspiration struck.

While Mississippi produces a small fraction of the nation’s milk supply, the dairy industry is an economic engine in Walthall County, which produces more milk than any other part of the state.

Teachers who look for the good - and find it

When Terrie Gates first began prowling around her yard with a pair of borrowed binoculars, some of her neighbors didn’t understand. That was two decades ago, when bird watchers were often considered eccentric.

Today, Belzoni, Miss., and Humphreys County also are known as the Catfish Capital of the World.

When film crews come to hometowns, they certainly keep things interesting; a local church can become a cafeteria, and

The Great Race meanders across the nation, retracing westward trails of pioneers, cattle drives, and gold seekers, cruising America's mother road, Route 66.

Even as the number of family farms declines, fourth-generation farmer Ben Burkett holds on and succeeds.

The real places, the places with a sense of self, are holding their own against a tide of malls and franchises—often deliberately, often by fortune.

History, fun, adventure, and relaxation off the beaten path