Every Fall, the Crosby Arboretum in Picayune hosts the Piney Woods Heritage Festival. The Arboretum is guardian to botanical life that is native to the Pearl River Drainage Basin all year long. During the Piney Woods Heritage Festival these plants serve as a backdrop to Mississippi pioneers’ cultural history. Activities at this festival include butter making, quilting, and Native American tribal dancing. Exhibitors and visitors are both encouraged to dress up in pioneer attire. Learn what it was like to be a blacksmith, basket maker, wood carver, or raise cattle hundreds of years ago. Listen to famous tales of hardship, adaptation, and triumph over nature. Resilient Mississippi settlers overcame difficult conditions and laid the foundation for the life we enjoy today.

The beautiful botanical gardens are the perfect place to enjoy live music, participate in the silent auction, and view some exhibits. Watch demonstrations of time-tested domestic, agricultural, and industrial techniques that allowed Mississippi homesteaders to survive and thrive in the Gulf Coast region. The Crosby Arboretum was named a Southern Travel Treasure by Triple-A Magazine’s “AAA Southern Traveler.” The arboretum’s Pinecote Pavilion has been named a Mississippi Landmark by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and will serve as the festival’s central location. The festival is held at 370 Ridge Road, Picayune, MS. Call (601) 799-2311 for more details. 

Friday is open to preregistered school groups ($2 per child), free to teachers/chaperones. Saturday features a variety of live music performances. Saturday admission, adults $5, children $2. Arboretum members attend free. Churn butter, learn how to blacksmith, or throw on some old duds and walk the garden to relive life in Piney Woods past.