HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WHLT) – Many people will be in Hattiesburg this weekend for the NCAA Super Regional. The winner, either Southern Miss or Tennessee, will advance to the College World Series in Omaha. Between the games, there are things you can see in the Hub City.

While you are at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), stop and smell the roses at the All American Rose Garden. The garden is on the USM campus near the front entrance on Hardy Street. It was dedicated in 1974. The garden has 32 flower beds filled with 800 separate bushes of hybrid roses. Smell, but don’t pick.

Here’s something on the USM campus you might want to go see if you have any interest in children’s stories or children’s books. It’s the DeGrumond Children’s Literature Collection in the McCain Library. The collection is made up of illustrations, original manuscripts and printed works of more than 1,400 authors and illustrators and more than 180,000 published books. The oldest dates back to 1530. It is a museum and an invaluable resource for scholars. Aesop’s Fables to Curious George, for the child in you. 

Here’s something else in Hattiesburg for the kid in you; the Hattiesburg Zoo. It is 12 acres of exotic animals and birds in the heart of Hattiesburg. It’s unusual to find a city no larger than Hattiesburg with a zoo, but you have what you want and are willing to work to keep. This has been a Hattiesburg staple since 1950.

But you can’t leave Hattiesburg without visiting one of the most unusual museums you’ll find anywhere. It’s the Pocket Museum in the alleyway at the Saenger Theatre in downtown Hattiesburg. It’s an outdoor collection of oddities and curiosities that you can look at and even participate in any time. COVID prompted the creation of the Pocket Museum. An empty window in the Saenger filled with little things started the museum. Then, like a magnet, other attractions began arriving.