Today we
drove part of the Natchez Trace Parkway.
The Natchez Trace is a nearly 500 mile
trail from Natchez to Nashville that originated as the local Indians followed
the migration trails of animals they hunted. The earliest tribes who used the
trace were in the area from around 800AD. When the French mapped the area in 1733 they showed the trail already in
existence. By 1785 farmers in the Ohio River Valley were floating their crops
downriver to New Orleans. Returning against the current was impossible, and the
easiest land route was the trace, which quickly developed into the most used
road in the South West. In the mid 1820s, the advent of steam meant that people
could travel back up the rivers, and the trace gradually fell into disuse. Many
parts of it were incorporated into modern roads, and some parts remain as
walking tracks through the countryside.
We stopped a
a number of points of interest on the way, including abandoned towns, sections
of the trace, and an old inn – the only one left from around 50 on the trace.
Click the link below to see where I am located.
If the above link
does not work, try this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=31.48645,-91.36687&ll=31.48645,-91.36687&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
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