The Fifty Mile Treasure Hunt
The Local Tourist
Mary Beard Grodsky
Trash & Treasures Along the Tenn-Tom will soon be here, and if you haven’t participated in this local event, you are missing out. I know it sounds like a modern day pirate adventure, but participants will find themselves scouring the roads, searching for their own treasure. What are these hidden fortunes I speak of? I will let you in on a secret…the real treasure is the adventures and people you meet over the course of the weekend.
The 50+ mile route of this massive yard sale starts on Highway 25 north of Iuka and continues along the Tenn-Tom Waterway all the way to the Belmont/Golden areas. It also includes Highway 72 to Burnsville. Thousands of sellers and buyers participate in this annual event, including people from local churches raising funds or simply people just selling personal items. Regardless of what you are looking for, you’re sure to find it here. In recent years as inflation has soared and supply chain issues continue to plague every industry, you’ve walked into a store and thought that you simply could not justify paying full price for a dining room table. Well, then this sale is for you. In fact, you might walk away with the table, chairs, china, silverware, wine glasses, and anything else you need for a formal Sunday dinner for a fraction of the retail price.
Some high school friends and I always make this an annual event. We spend the night before catching up over dinner before waking up early to start our adventure. Last year, we turned this into a scavenger hunt. Curious as to what was on the scavenger hunt as we looked for genuine deals? The list included a record player, a wig, something you used to own, or a fur coat, to name a few. It was a great time walking down memory lane as we saw so many things we remembered playing with as childhood friends.
While the day is full of fun, the best adventure is all the local people you run into along the way. Tishomingo County is full of colorful characters that you forget about until you travel back in time and spend 50+ miles visiting with people. Only the people you’ve known your whole life can laugh for hours when you find a used toilet brush that somehow made it into the sale of some old neighbors.
As a self-proclaimed semi-expert of this annual event, I can tell you the best items that you’ll actually use in your home are found around the lake area near Scruggs bridge and the Belmont/Golden area. I’ve considered why these areas are hot spots for good yard sale items and it’s simply because of the garage/barn spaces that people clean out near Scruggs bridge and the JP Coleman entrance. Along the Belmont area, you also find subdivisions with multiple homes sharing a booth. The best part is you can plan your trip around these hot spots and stop in the middle of Downtown Iuka to enjoy breakfast or lunch at one of the local restaurants.
My Memphis friends always see the pictures and hear the stories from the weekend every year and have asked if I would plan it for them. It’s simply not possible because it would be a letdown. I don’t know that they would find our cat hair plate, which continues to get used at events, nearly as funny as we did when we swore to the owner we would not let her know which house it came from.
