Mud Creek Swimming Hole, Tupelo

Mud Creek is a swimming hole on the outskirts of Tupelo, Mississippi, where Elvis Presley swam and explored as a boy growing up in the East Tupelo neighbourhood during the 1930s and 1940s. The creek runs through wooded land near the site of the Presley family's shotgun house on Old Saltillo Road, and local children used it as a gathering spot during the long Mississippi summers.

Elvis's childhood friend Guy Harris recalled playing in the creek with Elvis before the Presley family moved to Memphis in November 1948. Elvis nearly drowned in Mud Creek as a young child. According to family accounts, his mother Gladys — fiercely protective of her only surviving son after his twin brother Jesse Garon was stillborn — became even more watchful after the incident.

Elvis lived in Tupelo from his birth on 8 January 1935 until the family moved to Memphis in November 1948. The Presleys were poor — Vernon Presley worked a series of labouring jobs and the family moved between several small houses in the area. Elvis attended East Tupelo Consolidated School and the Assembly of God church, where he was first exposed to gospel music.

Tupelo is also where Elvis received his first guitar, bought by Gladys from the Tupelo Hardware Company on Main Street for his eleventh birthday. The swimming hole, the church, the hardware store, and the birthplace house are all part of the network of Elvis sites in and around Tupelo that trace the origins of the most famous musician of the twentieth century.

Mud Creek is accessible via the Music Bend Nature Trail at 99 North Veterans Boulevard, next to the Eastwood Softball Complex. An observation deck overlooks the creek. The site is the 11th stop on the official Elvis Presley Driving Tour, designated by the Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau.

A historical marker was dedicated at the site on 6 June 2013 in a ceremony attended by Mayor Jack Reed and Elvis's childhood friend Guy Harris, who shared memories of swimming in the creek with Elvis. The Elvis Presley Birthplace, the Tupelo Hardware Company, and the Assembly of God church are all nearby.