A historic machine shop interior with large metal planers and industrial equipment arranged along a brick‑walled workspace. A green Cincinnati Progress Co. planer sits in the foreground, with its long metal bed, cutting head, and overhead pulley system visible. Sunlight filters through tall multi‑pane windows, illuminating the worn floors, exposed beams, and surrounding early‑20th‑century machinery. A red fire extinguisher is mounted on a nearby column.

In the quiet of Soule Steam Feed Works, the old planers rest beneath tall windows—iron giants from Meridian’s steam‑powered past.


What does the Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum, a Dentzel antique carousel, and graves of Gypsy royalty have in common?


All three are located in Meridian, Mississippi. This eclectic mix of sites are some of Meridian's more interesting locations dating back to the Golden Age.


Meridian, Mississippi, only 20 miles from the Alabama border, was established at the junction of the Mobile & Ohio and the Vicksburg & Montgomery Railway lines in 1860. With rail transportation at the height of its popularity, the town boomed from 1890 to 1930. During its Golden Age, people flocked to Meridian, and it became Mississippi's largest city and a leading center for manufacturing in the South.


Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum

1808 4th Street, Meridian, Mississippi

The Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum is the home of America's last intact steam engine factory. Once known as Soulé Steam Feed Works, the factory is an industrial time capsule dating in appearance to around the end of the Industrial Revolution. Some of the machinery in the belt-driven machine shop dates to the early 1900s. At 106 feet long, the machine shop was once America's longest operating line drive shaft​.


Approximately 80% of the factory's furnishings and machinery are original to the site. The factory only received a few modernizations in its 110 years of operation. In the 1950s, Soulé replaced half of the belt-driven lathes with more modern ones. In the late 1970s, the company modernized the foundry but left the original cupola furnace and core-making shop undisturbed.

A historic machine shop interior featuring a large green metal planer with a motor mounted on top and a flat cutting bed. In front of the machine sits a metal cart filled with cutting tools and drill bits organized in trays. The workshop has brick walls, tall industrial windows, and warm overhead lighting that highlights the surrounding early‑20th‑century machinery.

A heavy‑duty planer dominates the machine shop floor at Soule Steam Feed Works, its motor, cutting bed, and tool cart illustrating the precision and workflow of early 20th‑century machining.

The company's founder, George Wilberforce Soulé, patented over 40 inventions between 1885 and 1930. Most of his designs were incorporated into products for sawmills around the South, but he also had many steam engine technology innovations. The company sold the products it produced worldwide.


The Soulé Steam Feed Works was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and became a Mississippi Landmark in 2003.



A macro image of a tap and die set at the Industrial Heritage Museum.

Tap and Die Set

The Little Giant power hammer anchors this corner of the Soule Steam Feed Works shop, its cast‑iron frame and worn surfaces echoing decades of blacksmithing and steam‑era craftsmanship.

Little Giant Power Hammer

A pair of old, dusty protective goggles rests on a worn metal safety sign with faded blue lettering that reads “WEAR YOUR GOGGLES.” The surface shows scratches, rust, and age, giving the scene a vintage industrial feel. The composition highlights the importance of eye protection in historic workshop environments.

Wear Your Goggles Safety Sign

A collection of forged metal pieces arranged on a surface, including a central metal cross with a star‑shaped cutout and several twisted or textured metal rods placed around it. The lighting highlights the metallic surfaces and craftsmanship, giving the scene a handcrafted, blacksmith‑workshop feel.

A hand forged cross in the blacksmithing area.

An antique Underwood Standard typewriter sits on a dark wooden desk with a curved wooden chair pulled close. A sheet of paper is rolled into the platen, and the scene is framed by warm wood paneling that gives the workspace a vintage, early‑20th‑century feel.

An antique Underwood 3 Typewriter in the Soule office.

Explore Upstairs in the Forge, home to intricate metal molds crafted with precision, where tradition meets innovation in every design.

Mold Storage Area in the Forge

A six‑bladed wooden propeller leans against a frosted‑glass window inside a historic workshop. Smaller wooden molds, cylindrical forms, and geometric casting pieces are arranged on the worn workbench around it. The brick wall, aged surfaces, and scattered tools create an early manufacturing or pattern‑shop atmosphere.

Working on Patterns

Unveil belt-driven machinery's magic in molding metals at the Forge. Step into a realm where tradition meets innovation with every turn!

Belt Driven

Shelves inside a historic workshop filled with metal patterns and mechanical parts, including gears, pulleys, and wheels stacked in rows. The space features worn wooden floors, aged brick walls, and a single hanging light bulb illuminating the textures of the metal and wood. The scene captures the dense, organized storage typical of an early industrial pattern shop.

Soule Pattern Storage

Dentzel Antique Carousel at Highland Park

1802 Carousel Dr, Meridian, Mississippi



An antique carousel sits inside a round pavilion with a high white wooden ceiling supported by large columns. The carousel features brightly painted horses with ornate saddles and decorative panels above them. A red railing circles the ride, and a small ticket booth stands to the side. Soft, warm light highlights the vintage charm of the historic structure.

Brightly painted horses circle beneath the white‑wood ceiling of the 1896 Dentzel Carousel, a National Historic Landmark and one of Meridian’s most beloved Golden Age treasures.


This Dentzel Carousel was manufactured in 1896 by Gustav Dentzel for the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. In 1909, it was sold to the city of Meridian, Mississippi, for $2,000. It's valued at over a million dollars today!



Brightly painted carousel horses stand on a vintage Dentzel carousel, decorated with ornate saddles, bridles, and colorful detailing. The horses are arranged around the central platform beneath a canopy with blue decorative panels, all set inside a wooden pavilion that adds to the historic charm.

Hand‑carved horses on the historic Dentzel Carousel display their original bright colors and ornate detailing.

Dentzel only manufactured two or three carousels a year and he supplied parks throughout the East and South. He hand-carved his animals out of poplar or basswood, and many, like this one, had original oil paintings.


When the Carousel arrived in Meridian, it was placed in Highland Park in a Carousel House designed by Dentzel. The Carousel is the world's only two-row stationary Dentzel menagerie and the Carousel House is the only original Carousel House building built from a Dentzel blueprint left in existence.


In 1977, the Dentzel Carousel and the Carousel House were placed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated National Landmarks in 1986.




Eleven other Carousels nationwide have received National Landmark designations, but this is the only one located in the South.


The Graves of Gypsy Royalty

Rose Hill Cemetery: 40th Avenue, Meridian, Mississippi

Two ornate stone cross‑shaped headstones stand side by side in a cemetery, each covered with colorful beads, necklaces, coins, bottles, and other offerings. The left marker is inscribed for Emil Mitchell, and the right for Emilia Mitchell. Grass, trees, and additional gravestones appear in the background, creating a quiet, weathered memorial scene.

Beads, coins, and weathered trinkets spill across the stones of Emil and Kelly Mitchell’s graves—quiet tokens of memory left beneath the shade of the cemetery trees.


Emil and Kelly Mitchell, the Gypsy king and queen, are buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Meridian, Mississippi.


In 1915, the queen of the Romany Gypsy clan, Kelly Mitchell, died at 47 while giving birth to her 15th child. King Emil, needing time to gather the Gypsies together for the funeral, chose Meridian (40 miles away) since it was the closest "Gypsy friendly" town that had an ice house able to preserve her remains.


Queen Kelly laid in state for twelve days, more than 20,000 Gypsies came to Meridian for the visitation, and 5,000 of them attended her funeral.


King Emil later remarried and lived another 27 years but chose to be buried next to his queen.


According to legend, if you leave a tribute on Queen Kelly's grave, she will visit you in your dreams and solve your problems. Many still see the graves, leaving offerings of trinkets, food, and other items.


To find the graves: Drive straight through the cemetery gate. The graves will be on the right when the road curves to the left​.


Not every image makes it into my blog. If you enjoyed the photos in this article, please check out my Mississippi Collection for more pictures from this amazing state, or visit my Image Gallery with over 4000 images of locations around the United States.



A framed photograph of a vintage carousel hangs above a white tufted bed in a little girl’s bedroom with soft pink walls. The image is double‑matted with a cream outer mat and a wider blue inner mat, all enclosed in an ornate gold frame. The bed is dressed in pink and white bedding with decorative pillows, and flanked by white nightstands holding a pink lamp, plush bunny, and pastel accessories.

A golden frame and carousel horses bring storybook magic to this pink bedroom—layered mats and soft lighting complete the dreamy scene.

Twisted iron and a gleaming forged cross create a powerful industrial still life—now transformed into a beautifully detailed jigsaw puzzle.

Forged Cross Jigsaw Puzzle

Carousel Horse 60 x 80 Fleece Blanket

Carousel Horse 60x80 Fleece Blanket

Wear You Goggles Coffee Mug

Wear Your Goggles Coffee Mug

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