The Miss-Lou is known for its sights — antebellum homes and the sweeping vistas of the Mississippi River.

But smells, too, contribute to the uniqueness of the area. Along with the universal scents of cut grass and car exhaust, the Miss-Lou gives rise to some smells all its own.

A horse’s tale

One smell Natchez has that few other towns have is that of carriage horses. The carriages that take visitors on tours of downtown have been a staple for two decades.

But not just any horse can be a carriage horse, said Mike Folds, owner of Magnolia Carriages.

“They’ve got to be able to stand at red lights and in front of houses,” Folds said. “It sounds real simple, but some don’t make the team. They have to be real laid back.”

No one wants the downtown Natchez streets to be littered with horse waste. That’s where the diapers — and the smells —come in.

“They wear a diaper,” a piece of cloth that catches the horses’ “exhaust,” Folds said. “You have to empty them when they go to the barn.”

But the contents don’t go to waste, he said. “A lot of people use it for fertilizer.”

Customers sometimes mention the smell of the animals’ “exhaust,” but locals rarely blink an eye, he said.

“Sometimes people aren’t used to it,” Folds said. “We joke that it was like the paper mill. If you lived here, you got used to it.”

Powerful barbecue

Down the street, a more drool-inducing smell wafts from a restaurant.

Pig Out Inn’s barbecue can be smelled blocks away, owner Anne Vidal Willett said.

“The first thing people say when they walk in the door is, ‘Oh, my gosh, it smells fabulous in here,’” Willett said.

Sometimes, if there’s a tour group nearby, an employee will yell “smoke ‘em!” and restaurant workers will run to the pits and open them, letting the smoke waft out. It’s the world’s best advertising, she said.

And although those who work at the restaurant often become immune to the smell, it creates a special perfume if they go elsewhere, Willett said.

“I had one person say I smelled good enough to eat,” Willett said. “It’s embarrassing. I forget I smell like barbecue. I walk through a store and everybody gets hungry.”

The smell comes from a special blend of oak and a little hickory they use to cook the meat, plus six different meats cooking at one time.

“The continual smoke and all the drippings and seasonings and everything make it pretty pungent,” she said. “You can’t escape it.”

Sweet success

An equally heavenly smell, though less mouth-watering, comes from a popular plant abundant in the region.

The sweet olive is probably one of the more fragrant plants in the Miss-Lou, Kara Mathis, maintenance supervisor at Live Oak Landscaping, said.

A native to Asia, the plant’s strong, apricot-like smell hangs over the Miss-Lou from late autumn through early spring.

“You notice it in the air,” Mathis said. “They have a really strong fragrance. You just automatically know what it is. They have that real pungent, sweet smell.

“Most people buy them for that reason — they love the scent.”

The plant with small white blooms is an old favorite, Mathis said.

“They’re really easy to grow, actually,” she said. “They do well in full sun or partial shade. It’s drought-resistant and pretty resistant to insects.”

One thing sweet olive can’t tolerate is cold. The Miss-Lou is an ideal climate for them because it doesn’t freeze as often as other locations.

“They do well here, but much colder than here and they won’t do well,” Mathis said.

Rolling river

Another smell not all towns have is the smell of the mighty Mississippi.

The tangy, often faint smell wafts over Vidalia and Natchez if the wind is just right.

But that’s not always a good thing, Eboni Campbell, who works at Comfort Suites Riverside, said.

“Most days it smells pleasant, but it smells kind of unpleasant some mornings,” Campbell said. “It reminds me of the (old paper) mill. But it doesn’t smell like that every day.”

Mostly, Campbell and her co-workers have become accustomed to the smell and don’t even notice it anymore, she said.

“I’m used to it,” she said. “I come to work every day, and I don’t pay attention to it.”

Michael Melton works as a tugboat pilot for Vidalia Dock and Storage. He, too, rarely notices the river’s smell anymore.

“It’s something that’s always been here,” Melton said. “It may have a fishy smell, but I’m used to it.”

The scent of progress

The odor of progress also hangs over the Miss-Lou these days, as well.

With the Gateway Center in Vidalia nearly finished and hotels popping up in Natchez, the smell of fresh wood and tar is becoming familiar.

One example is the re-paving of Canal Street in Natchez

For Tiffany Huff, who works in the Natchez Convention Center, the smell of new tar is a small price to pay for a smoother street.

“It’s not a nasty smell,” Huff said. “But it’s a smell that you notice when you walk outside the convention center door.

“I’m OK with it because the road needed to be redone right there. I can bear with it this little time.”

Down the street, at the Natchez Post Office, Cindy Saminton has noticed the smell of the street, too.

“I only live two blocks from Canal (Street),” Saminton said. “You can smell the tar, but it comes and goes. It’s not bad.”

She also noticed the scent of freshly cut lumber when the hotel on Canal was being constructed.

“To me, those smells are good smells,” she said. “My husband was a building contractor, and I worked with him for years, so it brings back a lot of old memories.”

And if a smooth drive home means putting up with a little tar smell now and then, Saminton had no problems.

“To get a new street, we’d smell anything.”