For years, Timothy Bozeman would spend his days off from working at a North Mississippi Coca-Cola plant driving along Highway 11 in search of local flea markets and yard sales. Parking his truck, he’d hop out and browse the antiques and other used items for treasures that caught his eye.
Seeking out these odds and ends across the state turned out to be a great way to meet new people, he found. Eventually, Bozeman collected enough interesting items that he decided to start running his own stall at a nearby flea market so that new people could come to him.
Flea-market owners and independent vendors along Highway 11 had been organizing an annual pop-up event called the Highway 11 Yard Sale for some 40 years before Bozeman began selling vintage items on the side. He took part in the event for several years before ultimately stepping up as an organizer for the sale, helping the widespread vendors better collaborate while getting the word out on social media about who was running a market or independent yard sale and where.
“All of the older vendors that had been participating in the Highway 11 Yard Sale were scattered all around,” Bozeman told the Mississippi Free Press. “There is a lot that goes into a big event like this that no one wanted to take on, so I decided to step up and run it.”
“There are a lot of people like me out there who take vacations to drive around and hunt for antiques at local flea markets, and an event like this is a great way to move high quality merchandise into larger areas,” he continued.
After several years of managing the Highway 11 sale, Bozeman moved to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 2017, a town in Neshoba County located along Highway 15. Not long afterward, he settled in and opened a new shop called Rustic Treasures Flea Market. Soon, Bozeman decided to put his years of experience to work by setting up a similar event for towns along Highway 15, dubbed the Hwy 15 Yard Sale.
“Things started off with me and a few other local vendors helping people set up outside the Hwy 15 Flea Market in Union,” Bozeman said. “Then we started helping folks rent out space at other locations all along the highway and grew it out more and more. Our main rule is to limit participating locations to within one mile of the main corridor of Highway 15 so that people don’t get lost trying to find places that are too far out.”
‘Every Day Has Been an Adventure’
The Hwy 15 Yard Sale stretches from Maben, Mississippi, at the furthest north point of Highway 15 and ends at Newton at the southern end. Other towns along the route include Decatur, Union, Neshoba, Philadelphia, Stallo, Noxapater, Louisville, Ackerman, Williams, Reform, Sherwood and Mathison.
Flea markets and independent vendors looking to take part in the yard sale post messages to the Hwy 15 Yard Sale’s Facebook page, giving their name or the name of their business and where they are setting up shop. Roughly three days before the event Bozeman posts a map to the Facebook page detailing the locations of all participating vendors to make it easier for shoppers to locate them.
Bozeman organizes the Hwy 15 Yard Sale twice a year during the first weeks of June and October, respectively. This year’s June event is from Thursday, June 4, to Sunday, June 7.
The Hwy 15 Yard Sale often draws in anywhere from 200 to 300 vendors, Bozeman said, with larger locations such as flea markets often having more than 50 vendors in one place along with food trucks and activities for visitors. The Hwy 15 Flea Market that served as the founding site for the sale typically has the largest concentration of vendors along the route, with space for more than 250 vendors both inside and outside the building.
A man named John Peady, who moved to Florence, Mississippi, from Colorado, opened the market in 2016. When complications from Parkinson’s disease forced Peady to retire in 2024, he left the business to Forrest, Mississippi, native Heather McGee.
McGee originally began working for Peady at another business he ran called Indoor RV Storage, which is located one mile away from the Hwy 15 Flea Market, before she began pulling double duty working at both locations when the flea market opened.
“Ever since I took up running the flea market, every day has been an adventure,” McGee told the Mississippi Free Press. “I’m always meeting new people and new vendors from all around and getting to help people find exactly what they’re looking for, whether it’s antiques or clothes or household goods.”
“As for the Yard Sale, it always brings so many people here to Union, and there’s never been a year when we haven’t completely filled out all our available vendor space both inside and outside the building because so many people are eager to take part,” she added.
The Hwy 15 Flea Market will also feature face-painting booths during the sale as well as food trucks such as Street Treats Ice Cream, T&J Concessions, Fizz and Sips, Big Dee LLC and Rooster Ridge Steakhouse.
‘You Name It’
Larry Friend, who operates the American Legion Hut in Decatur, is another founding organizer for the Hwy 15 Yard Sale. He helped Bozeman put together the event this year alongside Heather McGee and other antique vendors.
The Decatur American Legion Hut building is American Legion Post No. 89, which a group of 18 World War I veterans established in 1920 as both a memorial site for Decatur veterans and a local recreational center. A fire destroyed the original in 1933, but locals rebuilt it in 1934. The U.S. National Register of Historic Places added the outpost to its list in 2007.
Friend took up antiquing as a hobby after he retired from working as a paramedic RN in Scott County. He started out selling vintage metal signs, household items and decorations at a booth at the Hwy 15 Flea Market.
“After I retired, I just found it fun to drive around to estate sales, yard sales, private traders and anywhere else I could think of to buy and resell the kinds of things you just want to put up in your house and look at,” Friend told the Mississippi Free Press. “The Hwy 15 Yard Sale grew out of Bozeman and other collectors like me looking around at other big yard sales happening out at Highway 35 and Highway 28 and wanting to start something local that could be our own.”
The American Legion Hut will sell hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages and other food during the sale, with all proceeds from food and sales at the location going directly to support veterans in the American Legion.
Other sites taking part in the Hwy 15 Yard Sale include The Emporium of Wonderful Things in Mathiston, the Maben Community Church in Maben and the Louisville Trading Co. in Louisville, as well as many independent vendors operating out of their homes, neighborhoods or local community and trading centers along Highway 15.
“This yard sale is the perfect place to find vintage items like clocks, bottles, comic books, furniture, toys, clothes, home items—you name it—that you just won’t find at any big ticket stores,” Bozeman said. “This brings in so much revenue for all these small towns in the area that could be dying out from people not stopping there, whether it’s to shop or to stop somewhere to eat or look for a hotel.”
“That’s why we always look for everyone’s support for this event, whether you run a store, a restaurant, a gas station or anywhere else,” he continued. “If you’re someplace where people are gonna stop, you can do your part and help reach so many people in Mississippi.”
For more information on the Hwy 15 Flea Market and to find a map of participating locations, visit the Hwy 15 Flea Market Facebook page.
