In the tiny community of Centreville, Mississippi, just a few miles north of the Louisiana state line, we came across a mystery that dates back to the days of the Great Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Embedded in the concrete of one of the town’s street is an old Colt .38 revolver. The weapon has been there since the Depression-era Works Progress Administration originally built the road. Many people in Centreville don’t even know about the gun, and of those who do, everybody seems to have his or her own story about where the gun came from.
One story says that a husband found his wife with another man and shot them both dead, then dropped the gun in the wet concrete of the road, hoping to hide the evidence. Another tale of murder and mayhem has the Colt being used in a bank robbery and shootout, then dumped by fleeing outlaws.
A church that stands at the curb near where the revolver is located plays a role in one explanation for the mystery. Supposedly a notorious moonshiner got religion at the church and walked outside and threw his gun and whiskey bottle into the new roadway as a testament to his newfound faith.
Still another story has it that the road was being built as war clouds were looming over Europe and everybody was talking about the rise of Hitler’s Germany. A highly decorated but emotionally scarred World War I veteran threw the gun down into the wet concrete as a protest against further bloodshed.
I don’t know which story is true, if any of them are. Perhaps the true story has been lost in the dusty pages of time. But I have been to Centreville, and the gun is indeed there. I can even give you the GPS coordinates where still it lies in the middle of the road: N 31° 05.419 and W 091° 04.027. The next time you are in southern Mississippi, stop by this charming little town and see if you can solve the mystery of the Centreville Revolver.
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And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.
Thought For The Day – Not everyone is meant to stay in your life forever. Sometimes they are only there long enough to teach you the lesson that you needed to learn.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
My name is David Owens III from Centreville. My dad David “Bunny” Owens Jr worked for the town of Centreville for 64 years. The police station was right behind that Church on the corner. He told me that one of the police officers put that revolver there while the cement was still wet. That’s the only story I’ve heard about that pistol.
My grandfather was the mayor there and showed me this gun as a boy. I was fascinated by it and showed it to anyone I could.
He told me that a cop before his time left it there. There was a sheriff station right by this location and a cop had a gun that wasn’t any good and left the frame of it in the still wet concrete when they were paving the road; however, I have to say that I prefer the bank robber story. Awesome article thanks for keeping it alive.