The third of four Mississippi Blues Trail markers planned for Vicksburg was unveiled Thursday, honoring U.S. 61, America’s Blues Highway.

For information about the Blues Trail, click here

Placed at the foot of Jackson Street where it meets Washington Street — the path of U.S. 61 until the bypass was created in the 1960s — the marker is the 64th in the state’s series of more than 100 commemorating Mississippi’s contribution to the music world.

“This was Highway 61,” said Bill Seratt, director of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, gesturing toward Washington Street as the marker was unveiled. “It was a primary highway for the outmigration of our music. In music, there was no greater highway than Highway 61. It went north along it, was electrified and became the beat of everything you tapped your toes to as you grew up.”

Raised gold lettering on the blue cast-aluminum marker points out that the development of automobiles and highways like U.S. 61 coincided with the early days of blues and jazz. “Songs in the African-American tradition about riverboats, trains and railroads were soon complemented by records about highways, cars and buses,” the marker reads.

Labeled “61 Highway” because that is what the road was often called, the marker includes, on its reverse side, the reproduction of a record of the same name by The Sparks Brothers, the earliest recording about the road by Mississippi artists. Words and photos also point out facts about the history of the road as well as its place in the development of the blues.

The Federal Highway Act of 1921 mandated the creation of a national highway system, and Highway 61 was designated in 1926. By the time construction was complete 15 years later, at least seven blues singers had recorded songs about the road. It originally ran from New Orleans all the way to the Canadian border at Grand Portage, Minn., running through Natchez, Vicksburg, Greenville, Clarksdale and Tunica in Mississippi, as well as  Memphis, St. Louis and St. Paul, Minn.

Since 1991, U.S. 61 officially has ended at Wyoming, Minn., at I-35 about 30 miles north of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The Mississippi Blues Trail is a project funded primarily by grants to recognize the contributions of blues artists and geographic areas where performers played and developed. Sites and artists are chosen by teams of researchers, who prepare reports and collect photographs and other materials for verification by the state Department of Archives and History.

Each marker costs about $7,000, for research, casting and graphic design, Seratt said. Local communities kick in about $2,000 for placement.

The fourth Blues Trail marker planned for Vicksburg will be unveiled later this year. It will honor the early juke houses of Marcus Bottom, where many blues musicians played, part of what was known as the Chitlin Circuit, Seratt said.

A marker honoring Willie Dixon was placed near the Vicksburg Convention Center in 2007, and another honoring The Red Tops was unveiled a year ago on Clay Street near Walnut, in front of what was the BB Club.

Seratt said the group is in the process of getting another grant which will place “gateway” markers in such cities as Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago, Muscle Shoals, Ala., New Orleans and London.

“These will be Mississippi Blues Trail markers to explain how Mississippi music has influenced those markets and let people know about the Mississippi Blues Trail. They will definitely bring more and more people to visit Mississippi,” he said.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com.