Belzoni, MS

Belzoni is Humphreys County's seat in the Mississippi Delta, set along the Yazoo River where cotton-country roads meet catfish ponds. The city took its name from Giovanni Battista Belzoni, but the local story is distinctly Delta: river transport, plantations, rail lines, farm work, and the aquaculture economy that earned Humphreys County the Catfish Capital title. The World Catfish Festival comes back each April, turning that industry into a day of food, music, vendors, and hometown bragging rights.

Belzoni's map also carries the weight of the civil-rights era. A Mississippi Freedom Trail marker honors Reverend George Lee, while Mississippi Blues Trail markers remember Denise LaSalle and Turner's Drug Store's connection to Delta music. The Catfish Museum adds another stop in a city where agriculture, art, and movement history overlap. Humphreys County schools serve local students, and county offices give Belzoni the everyday role of a seat of government. The Yazoo River is still the best orientation point: it captures the old transportation pattern, the flat landscape, and why water matters so much to the county's work.