Soulè Live Steam Festival

Soulé Live Steam Festival

Friday-Saturday November 3-4, 2023 Adults $10 Student/Child - Free Friday Student/Child - $5 on Saturday

The 20th Anniversary Soulé Live Steam Festival in Meridian, Mississippi will show how things were made and how hard people worked back in the early 20th century. These workers’ efforts in the past have helped improve the standard of living we enjoy today. This event is hosted at historic Soulé Steam Feed Works, America’s last intact steam engine factory. Always held on the first Saturday of November, this year the festival falls on Friday and Saturday, November 3-4, 2023 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. This event attracts visitors from across the country. Last year visitors came from 21 states. The founders of the Industrial Heritage Museum and Soulé Live Steam Festival, believe that preserving and interpreting America’s industrial heritage is very important. The Soulé company closed in 2002 and was purchased by a local businessman, Jim McRae. McRae desired to preserve this important part of history. Today, only three (out of five total) similar sites have been preserved and are open to the public. Soulé Steam Feed Works historic factory site tells the story of early 20th century invention, industry and workers like no other place in America. Here visitors can see the manufacturing process from raw material to finished product. More than 100 volunteers and steam-enthusiasts work to make this museum and event possible. The Soulé factory buildings date to the turn-of-the-20th century. Most of the original equipment and fixtures still remain in place and are in operation during the festival. The 1907 machine shop still uses the original 106’-long, belt-driven drive shaft to power equipment. As you walk through the foundry—a state-of the-art industrial building when it was built in 1917—you’ll find the Paxson Cupola Furnace, which was fired by coke and produced tons of molten iron weekly. The Pattern Shop, housed on the second floor of the foundry, is complete with antique woodworking equipment. The foundry’s core-making department is another rare feature that survives.

https://www.industrialheritagemuseum.com/exhibitions-events/