Franklin is putting his new office in Robinsonville on U.S. 61, recently widened to four lanes. The tiny town seven miles north of the city of Tunica runs along the Mississippi River and is the center of the gaming industry. The landlocked city of Tunica has no gaming. An outlet mall is under construction across from the visitors center. Gas stations, convenience stores and strip malls have sprung up along a corridor between Clarksdale and Memphis that, six years earlier, was broken up only by cotton fields and road kill.
Highway medians give way to a turn lane every few thousand feet.
A left turn today would send a motorist plowing into a cotton or bean field. Casino traffic clogged the old road so badly his customers couldn't make a simple left turn to get to the restaurant on Old U.S. 61. The county had 20 hotel rooms when Splash, a poor cousin to today's lavish gaming palaces, opened. By mid-2000, the county will boast nearly 6,700 rooms and RV hookups. When the county's new exposition center opens in July, Tunica County, home to about 8,000 people, will have nearly 200,000 square feet of meeting space.