Iuka hosts annual festival

The annual Iuka Heritage Festival was this weekend.

IUKA, Miss. (WCBI) – Downtown Iuka was a sea of people this weekend as visitors descended on the community that is called the gateway to Mississippi, with both Alabama and Tennessee close by.

Rodney Windham is on the executive committee of the Iuka Heritage Festival. He says Iuka is a great little town.

“We’ve got a lot of retirees. It’s a river community. There’s a lot of water around us. It’s just a laid-back atmosphere. It’s a great little town.”

And Windham says this year’s attendance is not surprising because folks want to put Covid behind them.

“It’s kind of a tight community. It hit the community pretty good. a lot of the churches had to shut down for periods of time. It took us a while but we’re bouncing back. We’re coming back. it’s getting better.”
“Everybody around here helped each other through.”

Johnny Woodruff is a member of the Wheels of Northeast Mississippi Car Club which put on a car show at the festival.

“If you look around there’s a lot of people that’s retired and moved back to Iuka. Everybody talks about a small town, but everybody knows each other, and everybody kind of takes care of each other. So it’s a real good place to live.”

While Iuka is named after Chief Iuka of the Chickasaw Nation, this weekend’s special guests came from Cherokee North Carolina where they demonstrated a Native American Pow Wow dance. Daniel Tramper is a cultural ambassador for the tribe.

“If you look at Cherokee history, we owned seven southern states at one time in the 1500s. We are very proud that the Europeans took a liking to our names. We are very proud of where we come from.”