The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: November thirteenth, following the Natchez Trace.

Last time, we visited Nashville, in central Tennessee. For 400 miles from those leafy Appalachian foothills to the cypress river swamps of southwest Mississippi, a two lane National Park preserves a special cross section of America.

The origins of the Natchez Trace are pre-historic, as a gamepath followed by Chickasaw and Choctaw hunters. In the late 1700s, the trace served as a short way back north for Mississippi River flatboatmen. Upgraded by Thomas Jefferson, it became a mail and military road, before being bypassed after the Civil War.

The National Park Service resurrected the route in the 1930s, laying twin lanes through a land that was conservative in character, rough-hewn in disposition and backwoods in feel. Ancient relics and ruined plantations still mingle with the modern, and traces of the old footpath are laced with tales both tall and small.

Trailing southwest from Nashville, the Trace passes near Hohenwald, TN, where explorer Merriwether Lewis met his mysterious end. Snaking through the hills of northeast Alabama, it enters Mississippi. The land flattens past Tupelo, a town of giant magnolias and antebellum homes. In the forests, tall pines mix with graceful ash, chestnut oaks, hickory and beech, and patches of swamplands begin to brush the Trace's shoulders. A historic marker near the town of Houston recalls where pioneer witches once met and where to this day no grass grows. The trace continues to Jackson and on to Natchez, whose citizens twice each year open their historic homes for visitors.

FMI For information call Natchez Trace Parkway Headquarters and Visitor Center 800-305-7417 or www.nps.gov/natr

Back to November 2003 Main

Look through the list of fascinating places and off-beat features we’ve covered. Search text versions of past episodes and articles in our archives.