After a free rib-sticking buffet breakfast of eggs, sausage, potatos and fruit we set our sights on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Its northern terminus is on the outskirts of Nashville. The scenic drive's southern terminus is 450 miles away in Natchez, Mississippi. It passes through three states, not only Tennessee and Mississippi but also the northwest corner of Alabama.
The Trace became part of the National Park System in 1938 and was officially completed in 2005. The Trace is formed from a natural travel corridor used by the Natchez, Choctaw and Chickasaw nations for centuries. White settlers and travelers with their horses and wagons turned it into a clearly marked path.
There are scores of road markers along the 450 miles with sites of all types, walking trails, descriptive plaques, structures - all of which just beg to be stopped at and lingered over.
Beautiful road, for all intents practically devoid of other vehicles. The speed limit is 50 mph.
A certain nobility as it stands tall against the elements.
The sign and.....
One of the styles of descriptive signs at a turnout. It took decades for the Parkway to reach this level of finish.
The White Man was efficient in booting Indians from their ancestral homelands and onto crappy land far away, not infrequently with some version of a "Trail of Tears". The really rotten thing is that when the crappy land became valuable (there's gold in them Black Hills) they were booted off again onto even crappier land.
Emulation is the sincerest form of flattery. A top hat beats feathers any day.
After that great adventure of discovery, during which he could have come to an untimely end at any time, Lewis met his end here, in a nearby traveler's lodging, either a suicide or victim of a robbery. So banal.
Among the words carved into the stone grave marker, those which describe his as "...a melancholy end" are themselves melancholy. We saw the statues in bronze on a plaza in St. Louis celebrating and commemorating the start of the great expedition, full of hope and vigor. Who can know what fate awaits, and when.
After the hustle and bustle of Nashville on the afternoon of the CMA's, this is a real treat. On the road again.....for sure.
Remnants of the old Trace can still be seen (and walked on) particularly where it was deeply rutted due to nearly impassable mud.
An exhibit describing iron ore mining nearby at the Napier mine. A short distance away was a smelter to make pig iron. The ore from this site was 50% iron, high grade.
There are burial and ceremonial mounds up and down the Trace, built my the Mississippian culture and it's antecedents.
The mound is over Norm's left shoulder, in the background. Norm is pointing to the word "mound" for no discernible reason while Cricket occupies himself with trying to figure out where to pee next.
Mud was the enemy on the Trace. Also snakes, mosquitos, robbers and Indians who became steadily more displeased by the turn that events were taking.
The visitor center located at about the half way point.
The bottom line is that the Indian agent's lot was often thankless. Others simply weren't very honest.
It's estimated that 90% of the mounds originally identified have been destroyed due primarily to agricultural activities, vandalism, searching for artifacts or wanton carelessness. Perhaps the Bynum Mounds are now safe.
Arrived at our hotel at 7:15pm in warm 77 degrees. Starkville, Mississippi is the home of MSU - Mississippi State University. Mississippi is now the fourth of the five Deep South states that we have successfully breached.
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