Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness

Civil War and DAR Monuments

"This ancient roadway lost much of its usefulness after the arrival of the steamboats in 1812 and completion of the Jackson Military Road in 1820.

"Though the road began to fade into the shadows of time, it still conjured up vivid images of adventure and peril in the minds of those who had used and survived its ancient steps. This was the era of the road's demise and yet it began to take on a mystique and became known for the first time by the name "Natchez Trace."

"During the 1860s the Civil War raged around the region where the Natchez Trace had been so vital. Although the War Between the States touched many sites along its path, the old road had passed its prime and played no major part in the war itself.

"The old Road was rediscovered around the turn of the 20th Century, and as the ancient history of the road became more popular the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the War of 1812 took on the project of commemorating the frontier people and their travels along the Old Natchez Trace. In the first few decades of the 1900s, these organizations erected monuments in almost all the counties in the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee where the old road had passed.

"For Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness, I'm Frank Thomas."

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

River for Man

"The Great Depression of the 1930s saw the beginning of the project to build the Natchez Trace Parkway as part of the National Park System. This road is a pathway through time, a pathway that connects us to our roots. It reaches back trough modern times, back beyond the Civil War, beyond the National Road, beyond The European frontiers and historic Indian tribes, and prehistoric human cultures, beyond even the time of man and the roaming buffalo. Back to geologic times hundreds of thousands and even millions of years ago, because this road, this trail, is a product of nature that grew from the land. Just as the mighty Mississippi was carrying water to the Gulf, the Natchez Trace became a river for man and animals, for life battling the flow of time. When you take this journey back to our very roots, look to the future; you'll begin to see the importance of this trail of human history. The importance that we, like so many others before us, play out our part in this human drama of life on earth.

"The National Park Service has placed exhibits along the Natchez Trace Parkway, and on our next program we will begin an exhibit to exhibit journey up the Trace from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville Tennessee.

"I'm Frank Thomas, and I'll be your guide along the Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness."

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

Natchez - The Journey Begins

"Today we start our journey along the Natchez Trace Parkway, beginning in Natchez, Mississippi and heading to the northeast and Nashville, Tennessee.

"On the east bank of the Mississippi River in Natchez there's a large stone marker that stands at the southern terminus of the parkway. Dedicated in 1909, this was the first of many markers placed along the old Natchez Trace by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

"Below this marker is Silver street and what little remains of the notorious "Natchez Under the Hill" which tempted many a "Kaintuck" and "Boatman" in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

"After floating the produce of their farms down the mighty Mississippi and selling it in Natchez, the "Kaintucks" had money in their pockets and safety was a major concern as they prepared to strike out through the Wilderness toward the northeast and home.

"Back up on the bluff, in what is called "Natchez on the Hill," travelers of the Trace would gather at King's Tavern and form groups that would travel together for their protection. King's Tavern is still standing today and is one of the oldest structures in Natchez.

"So rest up! On our next program we'll be setting foot onto the Natchez Trace, a road through the wilderness."

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

Washington, MS/Jefferson College

"Today we set foot onto the Natchez Trace, traveling north out of Natchez, Mississippi as we begin our journey to Nashville, Tennessee. The parkway and Highway 61 run parallel to each other for some distance north of Natchez. You'll be passing by Washington, Mississippi that became the capitol of the Mississippi Territory in 1802. And you'll pass the site of Jefferson College -- although it was named for President Thomas Jefferson, he was never by here to see it. The college opened in 1811. Operations were interrupted in 1863 by the American Civil War. By the way, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America was a student at Jefferson College. After the Civil War this was a preparatory school until it closed in 1964.

"Also in Washington, Mississippi from 1818 until 1845 was the Elizabeth Female Academy, which may have been the first chartered institution of higher education for women in the South. The famed Ornithologist, John James Audubon was on the faculty.

"Join us next time as we continue our journey north from Natchez and visit Emerald Mound, the second largest Indian temple mound in the United States. This is 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

Emerald Mound

"Just north of Natchez, Mississippi and less than half a mile off the Natchez Trace Parkway is Emerald Mound.

"The Indians who built EMERALD MOUND were from the Mississippian Culture which gets its name because so many of their mounds and villages were located in the Valley of the Mississippi River. Unlike earlier mound builders who built mounds for burial purposes, the Mississippians constructed flat-topped mounds as the centers for their villages, and used them for ceremonial dances, civic processions, games and religious rituals.

"Built between 1250 and 1600 A.D. Emerald Mound is the second largest temple mound in the United States. It's 35 feet high and at the base measures 770 feet by 435 feet, an area of about 9 football fields.

"Tests by archaeologists in 1949 indicate that Emerald mound started as a natural hill top. The Mississippians leveled off the top of the hill and added hundreds of tons of earth from near the base. Using primitive tools, they loaded the dirt into baskets or skins which they carried to build the mound.

"Join us next time when we'll continue our discovery at Emerald Mound. 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

Emerald Mound & Desoto

"Today we'll take a close up look at Emerald Mound, the huge Indian temple mound just north of Natchez, Mississippi. It was built by Indians from the Mississippian Culture.

"On top of the large mound and at the west end, there is a secondary mound. At one time this smaller 30 foot tall mound had a temple on its top and it housed sacred Indian images. There's also a smaller mound located on the east end of the huge platform and there's evidence that from 4 to 6 even smaller mounds once stood along the top sides of the big mound.

"Near the end of the Mississippian era, at the time Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto came through this area in the 1540s, these flat-topped Indian mounds were still being used. The next Europeans came 160 years later when the Frenchman, D'Iberville, claimed the Mississippi Valley for France (this was right about the year 1700). By then, almost all the Mississippian Indian villages had been abandoned. The Indians D'Iberville traded with were the Natchez Indians. The reason the Mississippian decline happened so rapidly is possibly because of disease brought here by DeSoto and his band. The sick and weakened Mississippians were then more easily driven out by other Indian groups and they also fell to internal strife.

"Join us next time when we'll visit LOESS BLUFF. For Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness, I'm Frank Thomas."

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

Loess Bluff

"As we continue our journey up the Natchez Trace Parkway we are now about 12 miles north of Natchez, Mississippi, at an exhibit called LOESS BLUFF.

"Loess, spelled L-O-E-S-S, comes from the German word for "loose." This loose soil was blown from the western plains, by almost endless dust storms, during the last ice age and deposited east of the Mississippi River. Once, the Loess covered a huge area to depths ranging from 30 to 90 feet. What's left now is a strip of soil that extends from Baton Rouge in Louisiana up into the state of Tennessee. The Natchez Trace cuts across the Loess Hills of Mississippi, and in some places has worn into this soil as deep as 20 feet.

"If you visit Loess Bluff you can see how easily this loose soil erodes. Further north along the parkway, at the Sunken Trace exhibit, you can walk the original Trace or ride along it at Rocky Springs. When you see it first hand you'll understand why the soil gave way beneath the migrating herds of Buffalo and countless numbers of human beings over the centuries.

"Next time we'll visit one of the Trace's earliest stands, Mount Locust. This is 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

Mount Locust

"MOUNT LOCUST, is the first site we've visited north of Natchez, Mississippi, that falls into the era of the national road, 1800 to 1820.

"MOUNT LOCUST is one of the oldest structures in the state of Mississippi, possibly dating from 1779. It began as a house; the center room was the first part, built to satisfy the provisions of a British land grant, which required the building of... "One good dwelling house to contain at least twenty feet in length, sixteen feet in breadth."

"William Ferguson married Paulina Burch in 1783 and in 1784 bought Mount Locust and received an additional land grant from the Spanish. In 1801 William Ferguson died and a year later his widow, Paulina, Married James Chamberlain.

"During the years that the Natchez Trace was a National road, the Ferguson-Chamberlain family ran Mount Locust as an Inn where travelers stopped for food and rest. Business was so brisk during that time that behind the house the family built a two-story annex that became known as 'Sleepy Hollow.'

"Next time we'll hear more of the story of Mount Locust. 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

John Blommart

"We are taking a journey along what was the busiest road in the Old Southwest in the early 1800s, the Natchez Trace. Mount Locust is the sole remaining stand of more than 50 "houses of entertainment" that once thrived along side the old road.

"The original land grant for what became Mount Locust, was made in 1779 by British West Florida to Thomas Harmon who transferred the land to John Blommart, a Swiss-born soldier of fortune who had been a powerful man in Pensacola, the Capitol of British West Florida.

"Also in 1779 Spain went to war with the British and captured Baton Rouge and occupied Natchez. In 1781 the British planned to retake these territories, and commissioned Blommart, then owner of Mount Locust, to lead a revolt in Natchez. Blommart was successful, but the rest of the British plan only ended up losing the capitol, Pensacola, to the Spanish. With no support Blommart surrendered to the Spanish and was later banished from the territory.

"Join us next time when we'll look at something a little different, the first of many informative nature trails along the Natchez Trace Parkway. 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

Bullen Creek

"Traveling up the Natchez Trace Parkway eighteen miles north of Natchez, Mississippi, we arrive at an exhibit called Bullen Creek. This is the first of many Nature trails along the Natchez Trace Parkway where visitors can take a 15 minute walk that carries them through a Mixed Hardwood-pine forest and a mixed hardwood forest. The Hardwoods and the pines are battling it out, competing for water and sunlight. The tops of the hardwood trees block the sunlight from reaching the forest's floor and seedlings there have to struggle to survive. Pine trees don't tolerate the shade as well as the hardwoods do, so in this battle the hardwoods are winning.

"Between Natchez and Jackson, Mississippi the parkway is at its lowest elevation, which varies between 200 and 300 feet above sea level. Since Natchez, we have been in what is called the Deep South and the climate here is subtropical. There are not only hardwood and pine forests here, but also marshes and cypress swamps. If you travel this portion of the Trace, you'll see Spanish moss hanging like long beards on some of the trees -- treebeards.

"Join us next time when we'll look at the skeletal ruins of the Windsor Plantation. 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