O Brother, Where Art Thou?: The Odyssey in Mississippi

The film opens in the summer of 1937 with three convicts on a Mississippi chain gang, and their escape leads straight to a railway handcar. The blind old man pumping it has no interest in their story; he simply predicts they will find a different fortune than the one they seek. He is the film's Tiresias, the prophet of the Odyssey, and he returns for the last shot. The scene was filmed at Leland, on the Columbus and Greenville Railway, which runs east-west across the middle of the state.

Location precision: The scene was shot along the railway at Leland rather than at one address; the pin marks the town.

Pete's cousin Wash takes them in, saws off their shackles and feeds them, then quietly sends word to Sheriff Cooley. The barn goes up in flames while the three sleep, and Wash's son helps them get away. The farm scenes were shot on farmland west of Hazlehurst. The barn is not a visitor site, so the stop survives only on screen.

Location precision: The barn was a real farm west of Hazlehurst; the pin marks the town, not the farm.

The morning after the barn fire, the three fugitives pass a river where a congregation in white robes is being baptized. Pete and Delmar wade in and are washed clean of their sins; Everett refuses to join them. The mass baptism was staged at Alligator Lake, off Long Lake Road north of Vicksburg, on the wide water where the congregation stands.

Location precision: The source names the lake but not the shoreline; the pin marks Alligator Lake itself.

In need of money, the four stop at a backwoods radio station and record "Man of Constant Sorrow" as the Soggy Bottom Boys. Unbeknownst to them, the recording becomes a major hit. The station was a set built for the film at Valley Park, west of Hwy 61 and a few miles north of Alligator Lake, and it was dismantled after shooting. Nothing of it remains; the fields give no clue that a hit record was made there.

Location precision: The station was a temporary set at Valley Park; the pin marks the town.

They briefly fall in with George "Baby Face" Nelson, an outlaw who has been robbing banks and killing cows, and the bank he storms is the old Bank of Yazoo City. The Beaux Arts building went up in 1904, shortly after a fire destroyed much of the town, and it has been out of use for years. It stands at Main and Commercial Streets in the historic main street district, a shell you can see from the pavement.

Visitor guidance: The old bank stands at Main and Commercial Streets in the historic district; it is not in use, so view it from the street.

Down by the river the men hear singing and find three women washing clothes. The women give them corn whiskey, the men lose consciousness, and Delmar wakes to find Pete's clothes empty except for a toad. Delmar is certain the women were sirens who transformed Pete, and he takes the frog with them. The scene was shot at D'Lo Water Park, a working park on the Strong River near Mendenhall with canoeing, camping and rental cabins.

Visitor guidance: D'Lo Water Park is on the Strong River near Mendenhall and offers canoeing, camping and cabins.

They roll into Canton in the middle of a campaign rally for Homer Stokes, the challenger in the governor's race. Everett confronts his wife Penny, who has told their daughters he was hit by a train. The rally is staged on Canton Courthouse Square, around a Greek Revival courthouse built in 1855 and no longer used as a court; the district joined the National Register in 1982.

Visitor guidance: The square is in the centre of Canton, ringed by shops and restaurants around the old courthouse.

Stokes holds a campaign gala in Vicksburg, and the Soggy Bottom Boys perform, disguised as hillbilly musicians. The crowd is won over, but Stokes recognises them from the KKK rally and interrupts. When he demands the group be arrested and reveals his white supremacist views, the crowd runs him out of town on a rail, and Pappy O'Daniel endorses the band, grants full pardons and hires them as his "brain trust". The scene was shot in the auditorium of the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation, an Italianate hall of 1885 at 1302 Adams Street.

Visitor guidance: The center at 1302 Adams Street is a Mississippi Landmark that hosts tours and events; call ahead.

The last shot belongs to the blind man again. As Everett pursues Penny, the handcar passes by on the railroad tracks, closing the film on the prophecy that opened it. The shot was filmed where the Shreveport to Jackson line of the Kansas City Southern Railway crosses Front Street at South Main Street in Edwards.

Location precision: The closing shot is at the railway in Edwards; the pin marks Front Street, where the line crosses.

Visitor guidance: The crossing is at Front Street and South Main Street; view it from the street.