U.S. Route 278: Corinth, Mississippi to Collierville, Tennessee

Take a relaxed ride through the Tennessee Valley as we follow U.S. Route 72 west from Corinth, Mississippi to Collierville, Tennessee—a sixty-five-mile stretch that shifts from Civil War country to fast-growing Memphis suburbia. It’s a drive that blends rural quiet, small-town character, and the steady pull of the metropolitan edge, all unfolding mile by mile as we push toward the 385 loop.

We begin in Corinth, a city shaped as much by its road network as by its deep history. Sitting at the junction of U.S. 45 and U.S. 72, Corinth once played a strategic role during the Civil War thanks to its railroad crossroads, and echoes of that past linger even as we move through the present-day commercial corridor. Leaving the intersection behind, we roll west on a broad four-lane highway lined with local shops, small businesses, and clusters of neighborhoods tucked just out of view. As we pass the last traffic lights on the edge of town, the development thins out and the road gently settles into its Tennessee Valley rhythm—long straightaways, open visibility, and a steady pace where the landscape does the talking.

West of Corinth, the scenery shifts quickly to farmland and scattered homesteads. The terrain here is subtle but expressive: low ridges that rise and fall, patches of woodland, and fields that appear and disappear between curves. Small communities—sometimes little more than a crossroads—dot the highway at comfortable intervals, offering the familiar cadence of rural Mississippi. The road feels purpose-built for distance driving: divided, well-maintained, and never too demanding. It’s a route that invites conversation in the car and rewards the steady hum of the engine.

Crossing into Tennessee, the landscape keeps its rural calm for a time—rolling fields, scattered homes, and pockets of forest lining the highway. But mile by mile, the signs of metropolitan influence build: widened shoulders, fresh pavement, and more frequent intersections that reflect the pull of Memphis’s outer suburbs. Traffic grows steadier, and small commercial pockets begin to appear along the highway as Collierville’s eastern edge approaches. By the time we crest the last gentle rise into town, U.S. 72 has fully shifted from countryside corridor to suburban gateway.

As we reach Collierville’s eastern edge, the rural tone fades into well-curated suburban design: brick gateways, landscaped medians, and commercial pockets that signal we’ve arrived within the orbit of one of Memphis’s most prosperous communities. Businesses gather along the roadside, subdivisions lie just beyond the treeline, and multi-lane traffic becomes the norm. The route bends gently westward before leading us toward our endpoint at the interchange with Tennessee Route 385 (Bill Morris Parkway), a major regional connector threading into both Memphis proper and the wider suburban network.

This stretch of U.S. 72 may not carry the grandeur of mountain corridors or the intensity of major interstates, but it tells a quieter story—of towns growing, of landscapes transitioning, and of a highway that has long tied Mississippi and Tennessee together through the flow of everyday life. It’s a drive that balances the open feel of rural travel with the anticipation of an urban approach, a slice of the mid-South that reveals itself one mile at a time.

🎵 Music: https://realroads.tv/music/US72-corinth-collierville.txt