Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness

Robinson Road

"We are taking a journey on the Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Today we'll visit an exhibit at Robinson Road. A road built in 1821, to connect the states capitol, Jackson, with Columbus, Mississippi to the east which lies on the banks of the Tombigbee River. Almost all of this road ran through Choctaw Indian territory.

"In 1822, Robinson road was designated as a mail route and soon after began carrying much of the traffic to and from the north. The northern part of the Natchez Trace quickly began to lose its importance. In fact, this was a period of decline for the entire Natchez Trace.

"The 35 foot wide Jackson Military Road between Nashville and New Orleans had been completed in 1820, cutting 220 miles off the distance between these two important cities. And since 1812 steamboats had been plowing up and down the Mississippi River. In 1816 they began carrying much of the traffic that had followed the old "Road through the Wilderness" during the decades before.

"Join us next time when we'll cross another old road, Red Dog Road. 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

Red Dog Road

"We are making a journey along the Natchez Trace Parkway, traveling from Natchez, Mississippi on our way up to Nashville, Tennessee. The parkway follows the footsteps of the migrating buffalo and Indian hunters, of boatmen and farmers returning home after floating the produce of their farms down the Mississippi River to sell in Natchez.

"The Natchez Trace offers travelers a look at this country's frontier history in the context of the natural setting that shaped the people and cultures that interacted here. Like the rivers and streams that erode the land while changing course in the bottom lands, like the water tupelo, and cypress trees that reclaim land from the swamps and the hardwood trees and southern pines that battle each other to harvest the precious sunlight, man's footsteps diverge and rejoin as the path men take constantly changes.

"Another road that intersects the Natchez Trace about 40 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi is called RED DOG ROAD. It ran from Canton Mississippi and was named Red Dog after the Choctaw Indian Chief Ofahoma, which means Red Dog.

"Ofahoma was one of the Choctaw Chiefs that signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek where the Choctaws agreed to leave their tribal homeland and move to Oklahoma. That was in 1830. Red Dog road was opened 4 year later in 1834.

"Join us next time when we'll visit Myrick Creek. 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

Myrick Creek

"Today our stop along the Natchez Trace Parkway is at Myrick Creek. The site is known as Beaver Dam and is 15 miles south of Kosciusko, Mississippi. The exhibit and nature trail at Myrick Creek explain the many activities of a member of the rodent family, the beaver. In Mississippi these animals grow as large as 60 pounds. They are clumsy animals on land but have adapted to life in the water, felling trees, and building dams.

"I first thought the nature exhibits and trails that the park service has erected along the parkway were meant simply as an opportunity for travelers to stretch their legs and get out and take a look at nature, but taken as a whole, the Trace's nature exhibits are like a huge puzzle, and each exhibit an informative and interlocking piece of that puzzle. The visitor at Myrick Creek can see first hand that the activities of the beaver are part of nature's process of both clearing and reclaiming land from meandering streams. They help maintain balance and variety. There are no longer any beavers at the MYRICK CREEK site, but a short walk along this nature trail offers clear evidence of their sojourn here.

"Join us next time and hear tales of how the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians came to these lands following the guide of a magic pointing stick. 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

Promised Land

"We're just south of Kosciusko on the Natchez Trace Parkway in land that once belonged to the Choctaw Indians. East of here is the "promised land," the hill of origins -- Nanih Waiya, sacred to both the Choctaw and the Chickasaw Indians because the traditions of both tell how once they were one people.

"One story tells how the Indians came from the west searching for a homeland with a magical pole to guide them. After a day's travel they would stick the magical spear into the ground and make camp. At sunrise their leaders, two brothers Chicksa and Chacta, would inspect the spear. The direction it leaned pointed the way for their travels that day.

"One day they came to a stream rather early and Chacta placed the spear deep into the earth to mark camp, but Chicksa quarreled with his brother and crossed the stream to make camp, carrying friends and followers with him.

"The next morning the spear wasn't leaning. Chacta said it was a sign telling them this was to be their home. Chicksa and his followers on the other side of the stream had broken camp early and moved on. From that day the two tribes were bitter enemies -- the Chickasaws, who followed the one brother and the Choctaws who stayed with the other... the Chickasaws following the game and the hunt and the Choctaw, a more settled people in their lands, inclined to raise food crops to survive.

"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

Kanchi

"The Choctaw lived in lands east of the Mississippi River until 1830 when the white men of the United States forced them to sign treaties giving up their land, moving them to the west. Of 20,000 Choctaws forced from their homes 2,000 would die before reaching new settlements in Oklahoma.

"Listen to the words of Kanchi, one of the dispossessed Choctaw, as he stood with friends and relatives on the east bank of the Mississippi River before crossing to the west. They had just received word of the burning of their homes.

" 'My own kin and blood brothers, I know how you feel about what has happened to you; I too have felt the same and looked about for comfort from this wretchedness unto which we have been brought... Why are we surrounded by foes and cast out of our homes...? Sometime back beyond our old homes I heard a man preach from a book that he called a Bible, and although that book was read by a white man, I believe there is something better in it than the way the white man acts... We are in much trouble now, but don't want to kill or destroy, so give us hearts that we hear about in this book and let us be good, and if we live to see this new country to which we travel, help some of us to do good to those we meet. Perhaps we will not bring shame upon the land.' "

"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

Kosciusko

"Today on our journey up the Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee we are visiting the town of Kosciusko, Mississippi, one of the oldest remaining settlements on the Natchez Trace. It was originally known as Red Bud Springs, an Indian campsite. In the late 1700s a tavern was established to accommodate the growing number of travelers making their way up the old Indian trail, heading toward their homes in the Ohio River Valley.

"In 1830 the Choctaw Indians gave up their lands with the signing of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit creek. In 1833 the county was established. It named Attala County for the heroine of a novel by the famous French writer Francois Rene Chateaubriand. The novel Atala was about two Indian lovers that came from different tribes. Red Bud Springs became the county seat and was renamed in honor of a freedom fighting polish General and engineer during the American Revolutionary war who served with distinction at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. This General's name was Thaddeus Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciusko -- the namesake of present day Kosciusko, Mississippi.

"Join us next time when we'll explore a struggle in nature that's taking place along Hurricane Creek. 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

Hurricane Creek

"Today our journey up the Natchez Trace Parkway has brought us to a nature trail just north of Kosciusko,  Mississippi. Each of the nature trails offers us something quite revealing and complex in its detail and yet basically very simple. 

"Walking the nature trail at Hurricane Creek can be a poignant experience, especially when you remember that this was once the home of the Choctaw Indians. The trail offers a 15 minute walk and signs that explain differences in vegetation. The trail passes through the wet bottom land of Hurricane Creek, and through American beech and white oak trees and ferns that grow in the bottom. Then the trail climbs up a hill and through hickory trees that grow in the thinner soil then to the hilltop and the southern pine and hardwood forests. 

"As with all nature trails along the Trace, this one is in a state of change. As permanent as the pine trees on the hilltop seem, there are few seedlings and the hardwoods are gradually taking over, and as permanent as those hardwood trees may one day seem, events will occur to change the balance of nature. Like the Choctaw, who followed their magical pointing stick and settled for a time and these lands, the Fires of another breed have them to pass on. 

"Join us next time when we'll visit Cole Creek for Natchez Trace road through the wilderness. I'm Frank Thomas."

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

Cole Creek

"We are making a journey up the Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Along the way we are stopping by the more than one hundred exhibits which the park service has erected to interpret the history, culture and nature along this, one of the oldest roads in the world.

"Today we visit a short nature trail along COLE CREEK, another of the many winding creeks and streams that feed water into the Yockanookany River. The early road paralleled this creek for awhile and it would have been a source of food and water for travelers on foot and on horseback.

"Along the parkway there are several nature trails that explore the process of land being reclaimed from rivers and streams. First the streams reroute themselves and leave channels as backwaters, then water tolerant trees like the Water Tupelo and Bald Cypress grow up in the swamps and slowly build up the land. At Cole Creek a nature trail leads visitors through the last stage of a tupelo, bald cypress swamp and then to the early stages of a mixed hardwood bottom land forest. Early travelers along the Natchez Trace would have been much more familiar with this process than most of us today. The speed at which we travel directly effects the scope of our experience and the scale of our understanding.

"Join us next time when we'll visit the 'House of God,' Bethel Mission. I'm Frank Thomas, your guide along the Natchez Trace, a road through the Wilderness."

Bethel Mission

"Today's stop along the Natchez Trace Parkway is at an exhibit called Bethel Mission, and it is located on the parkway 4 ½ miles south of French Camp, Mississippi.

"The old Natchez Trace was used by Indians long before Europeans came to the new world. Pioneers began to settle in the Ohio River Valley during the late 1700s and float their produce down the Mississippi River to sell it in Natchez . As thousands of pioneers traveled home over the old Natchez Trace and became familiar with this rich and fertile land there was an increased desire for settlement here. In 1820 the Choctaw reluctantly signed the Treaty of Doak's Stand selling one third of their land to the United States.

"When pioneer families moved into this region they brought their religion as well and in 1822, just 2 years after the treaty, Bethel Mission opened. This was one of 13 Choctaw Indian Missions in the wilderness where missionaries came to teach the gospel to Choctaw and half-breed children. They also taught farming, carpentry, reading, writing and arithmetic.

"This very same year a school opened north of here in French Camp. Join us next time when we'll travel on up to French Camp and take a closer look. 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

French Camp

"Today on our journey up the Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez to Nashville we will visit the town of French Camp, Mississippi.

"The French Canadian, Lewis LeFleur, first traded with the Choctaw Indians at a trading post called LeFleur's Bluff, located where Jackson, Mississippi is today. In 1812, LeFleur established a stand along the Old Trace, and because of his nationality the area came to be called French Camp. Today the town that stands at the site of Lewis LeFleur's tavern is French Camp, Mississippi. It became a school in 1822 and has remained one to this day.

"The Natchez Trace exhibit at French Camp is at a monument presented to the town by the Daughter's of the American Revolution in 1915. It was the DAR's presentation of Monuments like this one that brought the Natchez Trace to public attention in the early twentieth century and rekindled interest in the historic road. This ultimately lead to the building the parkway.

"If you travel the Trace you might want to stop by the French Camp Pioneer Village with its Log Cabin Gift Shop and Cafe. If you happen by there on a Saturday in late September and October you may even get to see sorghum molasses being made in much the same way it was in pioneer days.

"Join us next time when we'll continue our look at French Camp and the famous family of Lewis LeFleur. 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