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Mississippi is universally recognized as the birthplace of the blues. The Mississippi Delta — the flat alluvial plain between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers — gave rise to Delta blues in the early 20th century. Legends like Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Son House all hailed from Mississippi.
The Mississippi River, the second-longest river in North America, forms the state's entire western border. It has been central to American commerce, culture, and literature — most famously through Mark Twain's works.
Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner set most of his novels in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi. His home, Rowan Oak, in Oxford is now a museum.
Mississippi is the leading catfish farming state in the United States. The Mississippi Delta region produces more farm-raised catfish than any other area in the world, with Humphreys County often called the "Catfish Capital of the World."