Water Valley Casey Jones Railroad Museum

Water Valley grew up as a railroad town: the Yalobusha County seat was at one time the center of railroad shops, and its most celebrated railroader was John Luther "Casey" Jones. Jones hired on with the Illinois Central in 1888, firing freight locomotives between Jackson, Tennessee, and Water Valley, and won promotion to engineer — his lifelong goal — in 1891; both towns were busy, important stops on the IC, and he built close ties to them through the 1890s. After working the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Jones got permission to drive the railroad's prized new 2-8-0, No. 638, the 589 miles back to Water Valley himself, and the engine stayed there in Jackson District service. The town never forgot him: one 1898 Sunday he hauled the Water Valley shop baseball team to a game in Jackson, and after his death in the famous 1900 wreck at Vaughan, a record fifteen enginemen made the 118-mile trip from Water Valley to his funeral. The Water Valley Casey Jones Railroad Museum keeps that Illinois Central story alive in the town where Jones railroaded.