"We try to provide opportunities for folks from our local communities to escape from the daily grind of town and campus life and enjoy fresh air and sunshine in a natural setting." Scott Knight, director of the University of Mississippi Field Station, said that to Ole Miss News ahead of the station's first Field Fest in October 2025.
The university's own visitor page says that "the primary focus of the UMFS is research." Over the past year, though, the station has added hiking and biking trails, started a public race and science day, and posted a job ad for a new director that lists picnicking, hiking, photography, fishing and trail running as activities the role should encourage. A research site that spent decades known mostly to scientists is opening its gates to people who live in Oxford.
The station is at 15 County Road 2078 in Abbeville, about 10 miles northeast of Oxford. Here's what is out there, how it got that way, and what the second Field Fest on Saturday, Oct. 24, adds.
From Bait Minnows to a Research Valley
The ponds that define the station today were dug for business, not science. Here is how the property changed hands, using the station's own facilities page and a history the university published in 1996:
- 1947. A bait-minnow farm is built on the land. About half the property is a cattle ranch, and the rest holds ponds from the minnow operation.
- Early 1980s. The fish operation ends. The property is sold to Weyerhaeuser and goes fallow.
- May 1986. The university acquires the land from Weyerhaeuser in a trade involving about 500 acres and dedicates it as the Biological Field Station.
- 1989. About 220 acres known as the old Bramlett farm are purchased and added.
- April 1996. Roughly 15 more acres are added to give access to the Center for Water and Wetland Resources complex.
That history explains why the station looks the way it does. The rows of small ponds that made the place useful to a minnow farmer turned out to be just as useful to researchers who need many nearly identical bodies of water to compare.
What the Land Looks Like Now
The station sits in what its visitor page calls "an uncommonly scenic three mile long V-shaped valley surrounded by wooded hills from which springs and seeps flow year-round." The property is at the headwaters of the Little Tallahatchie River, which drains to the Yazoo, then the Mississippi, then the Gulf of Mexico.
The forests are mixed stands of shortleaf pine and oaks, with loblolly pine, sweetgum, red maple, winged elm and black gum. The visitor page says the sandy seepage areas at the base of the slopes have the most plant diversity on the property. The experimental ponds range from a tenth of an acre to 2 acres and are usually about a meter deep. Researchers can raise or lower the water. The station's facilities page also lists a 1.86-hectare impoundment on Bay Springs Branch of Puskus Creek.
The official sources give different figures for the property's size:
| Source | Acreage | Ponds |
|---|---|---|
| UMFS visitor page | More than 740 acres | 200 constructed small ponds |
| UMFS facilities page | 780 acres | 220 experimental ponds |
| Field Fest race listing and Oxford Eagle | 787 acres | Spring-fed ponds, count not given |
| Ole Miss News, October 2025 | 700-acre natural reserve | Not given |
Whichever figure you use, that's a lot of wooded land with water on it for a site this close to town.
The station has buildings too. The facilities page lists a Main Research Building with offices, labs, an aquarium room, a conference room and a greenhouse, along with a teaching facility that has an auditorium, and two cabins for visiting researchers and students. An aviary for studying wild turkeys sits in a remote part of the property. According to the visitor page, the station monitors bird migration, tracks invasive species, studies how pollutants affect mussels and tests water for types of coliform contamination.
The Shift Toward Public Use
For most of its history, the station's public-facing role was a short paragraph about "hosting programs for the general public." The visitor page does invite people to "come out and conduct some research, explore educational opportunities, or simply walk around and look at wildlife." Three recent developments go further than that.
New trails. In the October 2025 Ole Miss News story, Knight said the station had recently added new hiking and biking trails and hosts several STEM workshops for K-12 students. He tied the push to the pandemic, when "it really hit home for me during COVID that we really need our natural setting more than ever."
A festival, now in year two. Ole Miss News called the Oct. 18, 2025 event the "inaugural" Field Fest. It combined a trail race with tour stops around the grounds, nature stories from the Lafayette County and Oxford Public Library, a mammal tracking exhibit, a talk on amphibian research, food trucks and a livestream of the Ole Miss vs. Georgia game. John Higginbotham, the university's vice chancellor for research and economic development, described it to Ole Miss News as "a great chance for people to explore a beautiful part of campus they might not have seen before." The university is holding it again this month.
A director search with recreation in the job description. On Sept. 21, 2026, the university posted an opening for Director of UM Field Station. The listing names picnicking, hiking, photography, fishing and trail running as leisure activities the director should encourage. A job ad isn't a visitor policy, and it doesn't change any rules for visitors today. It does show that public recreation is now written into the role of whoever runs the station next.
Field Fest on Saturday, Oct. 24
The Oxford Eagle reported that this year's Field Fest is hosted by the university's Office for Research and Economic Development and runs from 8 to 11 a.m. at the station. The university event calendar also lists the Field Station among the units behind it.
- 8 a.m. The 5K trail run starts.
- 9 a.m. The Kids One Mile Fun Run starts.
- After the races. Food trucks, music and science activities until the event ends at 11 a.m.
The price depends on when you sign up. The Eagle's $30 figure for the 5K was the early rate, which went up after Sept. 30. The RunSignUp fee schedule lists the 5K at $35 plus a $3.78 signup fee from Oct. 1 through 23, and $40 plus $4.10 on race day. The kids' run is $20 through Oct. 16, then $25 from Oct. 17 through 23, plus signup fees. As of today, Oct. 12, the lower kids' price has four days left. The Eagle also reported a $20 rate for children ages 4 to 12 in the 5K, so check the registration page for current youth pricing.
Proceeds go to the University Research Foundation. For a family, the race doubles as a guided first visit to a property that otherwise has very little public information about access.
Before You Drive Out on a Regular Weekend
The research didn't turn up any published visitor hours, fees for everyday visits, trail maps, fishing rules or a map of research-only areas. This is a working research site with experiments in its ponds, so the station's main page lists a phone number, (662) 915-5479, to call and check on access before you go.
The race's driving directions take Highway 30 East to County Road 215, then County Road 202, also called Bay Springs Road. The station says it is 11 miles from the Ole Miss campus, which makes it a short drive from The Square or anywhere else in Oxford. In the Ole Miss News story, Knight listed what he hopes visitors find there: birdsong, maybe a summer tanager in a yellow poplar, a calling tree frog and otters at play.
If you're getting to know Oxford beyond the usual weekend spots, whether you just moved here or you're helping a family member settle in, Zach Callicutt is glad to talk through how places like the Field Station fit into daily life around Lafayette County. Book an Appointment whenever it's convenient for you.
