SIMPSON COUNTY, Miss. ( WJTV ) – Simpson County is full of surprises, including the D’Lo Water Park.

The water park is situated on the Strong River in D’Lo near Mendenhall. The park has everything from cabin and camping tent areas, canoes, kayaks and tubes. It also contains playgrounds and a walking trail.

“The water park has just a host of activities that are available. You’ve got RV camping. We can park motorhomes here. There’s tent camping, and we’re doing some expansion of that right now where we’re adding on a glamping site. So, we’re trying to follow the trend in camping and off or other activities. We’ve got some additional plans that include setting up a pickleball court on one of the former ball fields. And we’re going to set up three, three courts and that’s going to kind of serve a dual purpose,” said Pat Brown with the Simpson County Park Commission.

The water park has also been the filming location for a movie or two.

“The D’Lo Water Park, if you look around, you can tell is serene. And I think it’s one of the neatest secrets that we’ve got going on around here. It has been the site for a couple of films. ‘O Brother Where Art Thou?’ was filmed right over here on the rocks. And my that’s where Dale Moore was turned into a horny toad was so that was kind of interesting.”

In Magee, you will find the Jimmy Clyde Sportsplex. It’s named after former Magee Mayor Jimmy Clyde.

“The sports complex started, like I said, 23 years ago. We have eight fields here, a high school size baseball field in the back. And then in the very back, we have a full-size football field, which we use for soccer,” said James Zila, director of the Sports Park and Recreation.

Every year, hundreds of kids play at the Sportsplex and participate in the Magee Youth Sports Program.

Magee is also home to Zip’s Café. In 2022, the restaurant’s burgers were named Mississippi’s Best Burger of the Year at the Dixie National Rodeo.

Zip’s has been around since 1963. It’s a family business and everyone in the area knows about them.

“My daddy was the original owner of the Zip’s, and it was first called Wyndham’s Restaurant. But everybody knew my daddy’s nickname as Zip. And they would say, ‘We’re going to Zip’s, we’re going to Zip’s.’ So when my dad passed away, we changed the name to Zip’s kind of in honor of him and my brother also had the nickname Zip. And his son also has inherited the nickname Zip,” said Donna Dunn, the manager of Zip’s Café.

The restaurant is located on Pinola Drive in Magee.

Mendenhall is not the biggest town in Simpson County, even though it’s the county seat. One thing it has the most of is vintage cars during the first Friday night of the month.

“We had a local business man here that I pitched the idea of let’s see if we can get the people with antique cars to come out and hang out on Main Street. He had a couple of cars so he brought them and helped solidify that. And it kind of kicked off. The first Friday night about 12 cars. The next Friday night probably a hundred years. It just grew and grew,” said Mendenhall Mayor Todd Booth.

If you ever get a vintage car and wonder what to do with it now, bring it to Mendenhall.

The grand finale of the Simpson County Bicentennial Celebration will culminate with the opening of a time capsule buried back in 1974 in Mendenhall during the county’s sesquicentennial celebration.

After unearthing the capsule on Wednesday, July 3, it will be opened on Thursday, July 4. Everyone is anxious to know what’s inside.

“I definitely am anxious to see what’s in there. Eager to see what’s in the old time capsule. I know my grandfather put something in there. I know my daddy put something in there,” said Marsha Magee, a neighbor.

Over the past few weeks, Mendenhall has been celebrating 200 years of Simpson County. After opening the vault on Thursday, there will be more fun.

“And on July 4th, we will unearth that time capsule at 9:00 a.m. that morning. We will have different festivities going on during the day until about 1:00 p.m. with music, food, events for the kids and play things, games and things of that nature,” said Judy Lee, executive member of the Simpson County Bicentennial Committee.

To continue the tradition, another capsule will be buried later in the fall.

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