River Bend Picnic Area

"Today we'll stop by the RIVER BEND PICNIC AREA about 20 miles up the Natchez Trace Parkway from Jackson, Mississippi. At this bend in the Pearl River you can see part of the dynamic process of a river changing its course. The picnic area stands on the outer part of the river bend, at a point where the flowing water and the solid ground meet. You can see how the water is eroding the earth, eating away at the picnic area. At the same time if you look across the river you will see a beach being build as silt from erosion further up stream settles out at the inner bend of this ever changing and winding river.

"When I visit this stop I'm reminded of a chapter in the Tao Te Ching, an ancient Chinese book that takes it's philosophy from the observation of nature. It says:

"There is nothing softer and more yielding than water.
And yet when it comes to attacking the solid and the inflexible;
It is without equal.

"What we view as weak can overcome the strong;
The flexible overcomes the rigid.
This is a truth everyone knows,
but not everyone puts it into practice.

"Join us next time when we'll stop by a line of trees that mark a boundary established by the Treaty of Doak's Stand. I'm Frank Thomas, your guide along the Natchez Trace, a road through the wilderness."

For more about Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness, visit eddieandfrank.com