Quality of Life: Recreation

Marshall County has many opportunities for leisure and recreational activities. From a tour of antebellum mansions to a day on the lake fishing for big bass or hunting white-tail deer, quail, turkeys and ducks, there are plenty of activities close by to fill your weekends or vacation time.

Fishing and Boating

Three lakes close to Holly Springs, ranging in size from small lakes to a large reservoir, provide the angler a chance to fish from the bank for bream at Chewalla Lake and Wall Doxey State Park or strike out on Sardis Lake in search of record-size bass. Sardis Lake is large enough to accommodate boating, skiing, and sailing.

Golf

If golf is your game, there are great places to play in and close to Marshall County. Kirkwood National Golf Club in Holly Springs is one of the most natural golf courses in the South. The course has been carved from existing landscape, providing secluded fairways and greens. Membership packages are available at a reasonable fee. Kirkwood also has cottages located on the course that accommodate up to eight persons with a common living area that is ideal for golf vacations or corporate outings.

Mallard Pointe is located at John Kyle State Park at Sardis Lake south of Holly Springs. The course features a variety of elevation levels, and anyone can play for a green fee of $35 and under with specials for twilight play and senior citizens.

Other courses are close by with two public play courses in Olive Branch at Cherokee Valley and Plantation.

Outdoors

In this part of the country, hunting is a pastime of huge proportions partly because of the abundance of habitat for white-tail deer, quail, turkey, and ducks.

Fitch Farms Galena Plantation offers hunting on its 7,000-acre plantation. Several field trials are held there to showcase some of the best bird dogs in the area.

Ames Plantation at Grand Junction is where the National Field Trials are held each year to find the best bird dog in the country. English Pointers and Setters that were winners in over 70 field trials throughout the U.S. and Canada compete for the Top Dog Award, named in honor of Joe Hurdle, a Marshall County native who judged the trials for many years. The event draws hundreds of enthusiasts who ride horses along the course hoping to see a champion making the most bird finds.

Cultural Activities

In appreciation of its rich history, Holly Springs has two museums that display the diverse treasures of the county's past, the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum and the Marshall County Historical Museum.

Restoration of several of the city's antebellum homes, such as the Walter Place Estate Cottages and Gardens, has brought about daily tours for visitors to experience what life was like in the mansions built when cotton was king.

The National Audubon Society's state headquarters is in Holly Springs at the Strawberry Plains Audubon Center, site of the annual Hummingbird Festival that draws thousands each year to see the tiny birds.

The Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery houses over a thousand paintings by the artist who studied under William Meritt Chase.