Symbol | Official Item

South Carolina designated barbecue as the official state southern picnic cuisine in 2014. Great barbecue can be found throughout the state and is an important part of South Carolina's $18 billion dollar tourism industry.

South Carolina designated the Columbian mammoth as the official state fossil in 2014, prompted by a letter from 8-year-old Olivia McConnell of New Zion to her state legislator pointing out that the state had no official fossil. She suggested this particular animal because in 1725 slaves discovered a tooth from a Columbian mammoth on a South Carolina plantation.

Mississippi designated the square dance as the official state American folk dance in 1995. Twenty-two states have passed legislation to declare the square dance as the state folk dance and more than thirty bills have been introduced at the federal level proposing the square dance as the national (folk) dance of the United States.

Mississippi designated the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) as the official state fish in 1974. This black bass (an elongated sunfish) lives in quiet, vegetation-rich waters.

Adult largemouth bass are active predators in the aquatic ecosystem, feeding on other fish and large invertebrates (such as crayfish). Large bass will also prey upon smaller bass. Largemouth bass can reach a length of more than twenty inches and weigh more than fifteen pounds. The largemouth bass is also a state symbol in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.

Mississippi designated the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) as the official state water mammal in 1974. Florida also recognizes the bottlenose dolphin as a state symbol. Common along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, bottlenose dolphins are extremely intelligent and gregarious creatures.

The following is from DOLPHIN RESEARCH CENTER, 58901 Overseas Highway, Grassy Key, FL 33050-6019, Phone: 305-289-1121, Website: www.dolphins.org:

Mississippi designated prehistoric whales (Basilosaurus cetoides and Zygorhiza kochii) as the official state fossil in 1981.

Mississippi designated the American alligator as the official state reptile in 2005 (the alligator is also a symbol of Louisiana and Florida). All State Reptiles

Mississippi designated petrified wood as the official state stone in 1976. Petrified wood is actually a fossil, not a stone. 

The Mississippi Petrified Forest is a privately operated park and museum in Flora, Mississippi. The petrified forest is the location of a prehistoric log jam that occurred about 36 million years ago. Petrified wood is not limited to the Flora area; it can be found throughout Mississippi.

Mississippi adopted the magnolia as the official state tree in 1952. Mississippi's nickname is The Magnolia State and the magnolia is also the state flower of Mississippi (adopted in 1900).

Although no specific species of magnolia was designated as the state tree of Mississippi, most references recognize the Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) as the state tree.

Mississippi designated coreopsis as the official state wildflower in 1991. Coreopsis (the common name is tickseed) is a group of 35 species of flowering plants. Twenty-eight species of coreopsis are native to North America and the others come from Central and South America. Coreopsis ranges in color from golden to pink.