Tupelo, Mississippi

Tupelo is the largest city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi, United States. It is the seventh largest city in the state of Mississippi, smaller than Meridian, and larger than Greenville. As of the 2000 United States Census, the city's population was 34,211. By 2010, the population was 39,033, with surrounding counties of Lee, Pontotoc and Itawamba supporting a population of 146,131. The city is best known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Situated in northeast Mississippi, the city lies between Memphis, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama, along U.S. Highway 78 — slated to become Interstate 22 within a few years.

History
European-American settlers had first named the town Gum Pond prior to the American Civil War, supposedly due to the high number of tupelo trees, locally known as blackgum, that grew in the area. The city still hosts the annual Gumtree Arts Festival. The Southern expression, Possum Up A Gum Tree came from this area. During the war, the local Battle of Tupelo was named after the trees in the area. In the post-Civil War era, Tupelo became the northern Mississippi site for the crossing of a railroad, which encouraged industry in the town. Once the town began to grow, it changed its name to Tupelo, in honor of the battle. Tupelo was incorporated in 1870 with a population of 618. The war site has been designated the Tupelo National Battlefield and is administered by the National Park Service (NPS).

Famous prohibition-era gangster Machine Gun Kelly's last known bank robbery occurred on November 30, 1932 at the Citizen’s State Bank in Tupelo netting his gang $38,000. After the robbery the bank’s chief teller would say of Kelly, “He was the kind of guy that, if you looked at him, you would never thought he was a bank robber.” In 1934 Tupelo and its region gained electricity from the new Tennessee Valley Authority. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited this "First TVA City".

The Spring of 1936 brought Tupelo one of its worst-ever natural disasters, as the infamous Tupelo Tornado ranks fourth deadliest in U.S. history. Part of the Tupelo-Gainesville outbreak of April 5–6 in that year, the Tupelo storm, which struck at night and destroyed large residential areas on the city's north side, was subsequently rated EF5 on the modern Fujita scale. The Gum Pond neighborhood was obliterated, and most of the victims' bodies were left in that pond by the tornado. The official death toll was 216, but the true number is unknown since African-Americans were not counted. One fortunate survivor of the storm was the baby Elvis Presley. Historian Martis D. Ramage, Jr.'s book, "Tupelo, Mississippi, Tornado of 1936," chronicles the devastation of the tornado, with many rare photographs.

The nearby village of Blue Springs was selected during the spring of 2007 as the site for Toyota's eleventh U.S. automobile manufacturing plant.

Culture & Attractions



 * The Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo is home to hundreds of animals and a large American bison herd.


 * Tupelo is the headquarters of the historic Natchez Trace Parkway, connecting Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, while following the route of the original Natchez Trace trail. Nearby are the Pharr Mounds, an important Middle Woodland period complex of burial earthworks dating from 1 and 200 CE.


 * The Civil War battlefields include: Tupelo National Battlefield and Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield.


 * One of the largest automobile museums in North America, the Tupelo Automobile Museum opened on December 7, 2002, Pearl Harbor Day. It was designated the official State of Mississippi automobile museum in the spring of 2003. The museum is home to more than 150 rare automobiles, all of which were part of the personal collection of WTVA founder Frank K. Spain.


 * Tupelo Community Theatre was founded in 1969. Its chairman is Steve McAlilly and the board of directors numbers 16.  The theatre has produced over 200 productions.  In 2001 and 2004 it won awards at the Mississippi Theatre Association Community Theatre festival.  In 2004 its production of Bel Canto won at the Southeastern Theatre Conference. TCT's home is the historic Lyric Theatre, built in 1912.


 * The Tupelo Symphony Orchestra's season runs from September–April with concerts held at the Tupelo Civic Auditorium. Special conductors and soloists appear regularly.  The symphony also holds a free annual July 4 outdoor concert at Tupelo's Ballard Park, which draws thousands of fans.


 * In 2005, the Tupelo Rotary Club sponsored a commission for a statue of Chief Piomingo, a leader of the Chickasaw people, which was erected in front of the new city hall.


 * Tupelo's Oren Dunn City Museum tells the Story of Community Building through permanent exhibits and a collection of historic structures. The Special Exhibit Gallery provides a venue for a variety of traveling and temporary shows throughout the year.


 * June 2006 was the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Elvis Presley Homecoming in Tupelo, whose highlight was the famous 1956 concert at the Mississippi-Alabama State Fair & Dairy Show. The event was recreated at the eighth "Elvis Presley Festival" in Tupelo on June 3, 2006. The fairgrounds is now part of Tupelo's Fairpark District. Documentary filmmakers Roy Turner and Jim Palmer premiered their new Presley documentary, The Homecoming: Tupelo Welcomes Elvis Home, at the 2006 festival.


 * The Lee County Library's annual Helen Foster Lecture series has since 1974 sponsored nationally known authors, including Shelby Foote, Alex Haley, John Grisham, Rick Bragg, Pat Conroy, Ernest Gaines, Willie Morris, Beverly Sills and Alice Walker.


 * Built in 1937, Tupelo's Church Street Elementary School was hailed as one of the most outstanding designs of its time. A scale model of this Art Moderne structure was displayed at the 1939 New York World's Fair as "the ideal elementary school."


 * Tupelo's coliseum, the BancorpSouth Arena, opened in 1993 and has hosted concerts by entertainers such as The Eagles, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, Widespread Panic, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Aerosmith, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Elton John, Kelly Clarkson, and Creed.

Government
Tupelo's current mayor is Republican Jack Reed Jr.. The president of the Tupelo City Council is Fred Pitts. The other six council members are Markel Whittenton, Jim Newll, Nettie Davis, Jonny Davis, Mike Bryan, and Willie Jennings.

In December 2007, Sen. Trent Lott retired leaving a vacancy in his unfinished six-year term. Governor Haley Barbour appointed Rep. Roger Wicker as Lott's replacement. Mississippi's First Congressional District seat was open and a special election was held. After a much heated campaign, Travis Childers (D) was elected to represent Mississippi's First Congressional District.

Education
Tupelo schools are served by the Tupelo Public School District. The 2008 Tupelo Golden Wave high school baseball team was ranked #1 in the nation for 2 weeks. The Tupelo High School Athletic department was ranked #3 in the nation in 2008 by Sports Illustrated as best athletic department.

Tupelo is home to satellite campuses of the University of Mississippi, Itawamba Community College, and the Mississippi University for Women.

Economy
Historically, Tupelo served as a regional transportation hub, primarily due to it's location at a railroad intersection. More recently it has developed as strong tourism and hospitality sector based around the Elvis Presley birthplace and Natchez Trace. The city has also been successful at attracting manufacturing, retail and distribution operations (see 'Industry' section below).

Industry

 * Tupelo is the headquarters of the North Mississippi Medical Center, the largest non-metropolitan hospital in the United States. It serves people in North Mississippi, northwest Alabama and portions of Tennessee. The medical center was a winner of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2006.
 * Tupelo is the headquarters of two banking institutions - BancorpSouth, with approximately $11.8 billion in assets (2006), and Renasant, with assets of approximately $4.2 billion (2011).
 * The city is a four-time "All-America City Award" winner and boasts one of the largest furniture manufacturing industries nationwide. As journalist Dennis Seid of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal noted in the February, 2006 edition of The Northeast Mississippi Business Journal, furniture manufacturing is crucial to the economy of Northeast Mississippi, "providing some 22,000 jobs, or almost 13% of the region's employment... with a $732 million annual payroll... producing $2.25 billion worth of goods."
 * Tupelo had the first Comcast cable system.
 * Tecumseh, Furniture Brands International, Hancock Fabrics, Inc., Magnolia Fabrics, Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Mississippi, H.M. Richards, JESCO Construction, MTD Products, Savings Oil Company (Dodge's Stores), and Cooper Tire & Rubber Company all operate or are headquartered in Tupelo & Lee County.
 * Enerkem, a Quebec-based biofuels company, has received a grant/loan from the DOE to build a plant near Tupelo to convert municipal waste into ethanol fuel.

Demographics


As of the census of 2000, there are 34,211 people, 13,395 households, and 9,108 families residing in the city. The population density is 669.4 people per square mile (258.4/km²). There are 14,551 housing units at an average density of 284.7 per square mile (109.9/km²). The racial makeup of the city is 69.40% White, 28.29% African American, 0.11% Native American, 0.88% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.47% from other races, and 0.85% from two or more races. 1.41% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 13,395 households out of which 34.9% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.3% are married couples living together, 16.2% have a female householder with no husband present, and 32.0% are non-families. 28.0% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.8% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.47 and the average family size is 3.04.

In the city the population is spread out with 27.5% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 25, 30.5% from 25 to 45, 21.4% from 45 to 65, and 12.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 35 years. For every 100 females there are 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 82.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $38,401. Males have a median income of $35,027 versus $23,988 for females. The per capita income for the city is $22,024.

Media
The local daily newspaper is the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

Tupelo is home to three television stations serving the 133rd-ranked designated market area among 210 markets nationwide as determined by Nielsen Media Research: WTVA (9), an NBC affiliate; WLOV (27), a Fox affiliate, and WKDH (45), an ABC affiliate. All three stations are located just outside the Tupelo city limits and were controlled by Frank K. Spain until his death on April 25, 2006.

Geography & Climate
Tupelo is located in northeast Mississippi, north of Columbus, on future Interstate 22 and US Route 78 mid way between Memphis, Tennessee (northwest) and Birmingham, Alabama (southeast).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 51.4 square miles (133.2 km²), of which, 51.1 square miles (132.4 km²) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.8 km²) of it (0.62%) is water.

Notable people



 * Diplo (b. 1978) DJ, born in Tupelo
 * John Dye (1963–2011) Actor, (China Beach, Touched By An Angel) graduated from Tupelo High School in 1981.
 * Allie Grant (b. 1994) Actress. Born in Tupelo
 * Guy Hovis (b. 1941) Singer. Born in Tupelo
 * Jarious Jackson (b. 1977) American football quarterback, born in Tupelo
 * W. Winfred Moore (b. 1919) Baptist clergyman pastored 1950s in Tupelo
 * Alan Nunnelee (b. 1958) United States Congressman born and raised in Tupelo
 * Elvis Presley (1935–1977) Born in East Tupelo in 1935
 * John E. Rankin (1882–1960) United States Congressman sixteen terms, died in Tupelo
 * Jumpin' Gene Simmons (1933–2006) Rockabilly singer-songwriter
 * Paul Thorn (b. 1964) Singer-songwriter
 * Van Tiffin (b. 1965) American football placekicker, born in Tupelo