When Gail Huff, a sixth-grade science teacher at Magnolia Elementary School learned that Mississippi River Tours in Vicksburg was offering free tours of the Mississippi River on the Sweet Olive boat, she jumped at the opportunity. 

“We’ve been doing projects on recycling and pollution, so this was just a great opportunity for the kids to come out and see the river for themselves,” said Huff on Friday, while her students looked out open windows and stood on the balcony of the boat that operates daily from City Front. “It wouldn’t have been possible for us to do this otherwise; we couldn’t afford it.”

To book a trip

Teachers interested in booking a ride on the river for their classes can call Mississippi River Tours at 601-883-1083. The tours are free, take about 90 minutes and are open to school children in grades 3 through 12. The last tour will be Dec. 17.

The Sweet Olive has been providing the trips to school classes from all over the state since October via a contract from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, which is paying for 45 tours to be given to school children. As part of the contract, the Sweet Olive crew tailors an educational tour for the students that includes information on the Mississippi and Yazoo River watersheds, the water cycle, the importance of reducing pollution and other environmental issues. The tour starts out with a visit to the industrial harbor off the Yazoo Diversion Canal and then heads back out to the Mississippi River.

“On our regular tours we give more of a historic tour,” said Liz Porter Curtis, co-owner of the Sweet Olive and first mate on the tours. “On our student trips we’re talking more about pollution, how it gets into our rivers and telling them how they can help keep our river clean.” 

Along with providing free educational tours for students in grades three through 12, the MDEQ contract is providing much needed off-season business for the Sweet Olive. 

“Since (Hurricane) Katrina our tourism has dropped unbelievably. Our winters have been very hard, and we usually reduce it to just weekend tours. So this really affords us the opportunity to run on weekdays during the winter months, and allows us to accommodate the tourists who want to take a tour during the weekdays,” Curtis said.

There are still about 10 free trips left on the MDEQ contract, and Curtis said she hopes some local teachers will fill the spots. While some Vicksburg classes have taken advantage of the free tours, most have come from outside the city to see the river. Magnolia is south of McComb, meaning those students traveled more than two hours each way to take the river tour.

“A lot have come from the Delta, but they’ve come from all over the state. We’ve had homeschool classes, private and public schools,” said Curtis, who noted Mississippi River Tours is currently working to obtain an extension of the contract with MDEQ. “We’d like our local schools to take advantage of the final tours we’ll be giving for free.” 

While in Vicksburg, the sixth-graders from Magnolia were also scheduled to visit the Vicksburg National Military Park. It’s an example of how valuable school trips can be to tourism in the city, said Bill Seratt, executive director of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau. His staff is currently working to produce a brochure outlining the various educational attractions in Vicksburg open to group tours. The brochure will be sent to every school district in the state as well as those in northern Louisiana sometime after the first of the year, said Seratt.

“We hope to bring as many students and groups  to Vicksburg as possible to build the city into their memories and encourage return visits with their family members,” Seratt said.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com