Natchez Trace

Got up early this morning and traveled from Jackson, MS to Natchez, MS about a three hour drive. Natchez is one of the few southern cities that was not destroyed in the Civil War. We arrived, checked out the Welcome Center, and headed for a picnic spot by the Mississippi river. Enjoyed a simple lunch of PB&J sandwiches, Pringles, bananas and Brownie Bites! Drove around Natchez and saw some amazing houses dating back to the early 1800’s. The entire downtown section (close to the river) is a historic area and we really enjoyed traveling thru it. Next, we headed for the town cemetery which contained some really old and historic gravesites. Headed for the Natchez Trace about 2:30 pm. The Natchez Trace was used by “Kaintucks” or boatmen from the Ohio River Valley. They would float their wooden boats down the rivers to Natchez, sell their goods and lumber from the boat, and then walk approximately 500 miles up the Natchez trace to Nashville, Tennessee, in about 35 days. This was through territory that contained sometimes hostile Indians, robbers, and road hazards. We visited an Indian mound (the 2nd largest in the US) and the Mount Locust Historic Inn (which is on the Natchez Trace and served as an inn for travelers in the early 1800’s). Unfortunately, it gets dark here around 5 pm and we didn’t get a chance to explore all the areas of this portion of the Trace before it got dark. Headed back to Barnabas extremely thankful that we didn’t have to walk back home like the early “Kaintucks”.