24 January – Vicksburg to Natchez

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.

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23 January –Vicksburg

We spent the day at Vicksburg National Military Park. The park is the site of the Civil War battle for Vicksburg, which was one of the key sites during the war, due to its control over the Mississippi River. The movement of goods from the North was prevented by confederate blockades of the river, thus cutting a vital supply line.

The battle took place in 1863 and the 47 day siege resulted in the surrender of the city to the Union.

The park has a 16 mile tour road, and big red (Confederate) and blue (Union) markers to show the locations of the troops. The tour road is lined with elaborate monuments to the battalions and to the states that served on both sides. Overall, it was easy to see how strategic Vicksburg was in the war. On the banks of the Mississippi, it is surrounded by high bluffs, which the Confederate soldiers defended from forts. After several horrific losses from attempts to storm the forts, the Union sensibly decided to lay siege and starve the city out.

One of the stops on the tour route was the USS Cairo, one of 7 ironclad gunboats used by the Union in the war. In 1862, Cairo was hit mines in the Yazoo River, and sunk in 36 foot of water. There she remained until she was discovered in 1956 by local historians. In 1965 she was raised and the restoration effort began. Now Cairo rests under a permanent cover, with her missing pieces replaced by laminated timbers. A good deal of her iron work is intact, and there is a museum of the artifacts from the wreck.

22 January – Vicksburg

It was raining and given what we wanted to do in Vicksburg is outdoors, we opted for a rest day. Overnight there was belting rain, thunderstorms and hail, with a tornado watch in place. The RV park has a storm shelter, but for us Aussies the idea of tornadoes was a bit scary! 

21 January – Natchitoches to Vicksburg

Heading from Natchitoches we headed North East toward the top corner of Louisiana and a place called Poverty Point. The UNESCO listed World Heritage site contains some of the largest prehistoric earth works in North America dating back some 3000 years. A 500 acre semi-circular city and the centre of an enormous trading network that stretched hundreds of miles, Poverty Point is one of the most significant archaeological sites in North America.

The city surrounds a huge plaza area that once contained circles of upright logs. There are six concentric, crescent ridge earthworks, where people lived and worked, with several large earth mounds, including one 70 foot high mound that is approx 238000 cubic meters of fill.

Poverty Point was abandoned around 1100 B.C. A more recent native group added another mound in about A.D. 700, but occupied only a small fraction of the site, and only for a brief period. Aside from that, there was only intermittent human use of the site for 2,900 years, until the settlers arrived in the area in the 1800s. At that time the site was used as farmland and the regular ploughing obliterated many of the features of the site.

The museum was interesting, with the artifacts that have been collected from the site. We opted for a self guided walking tour, around 4 km, that took us allover the site, including climbing the big mound.

Following Poverty Point we headed East, over the state border into Mississippi and Vicksburg.

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20 January – Kincaid to Natchitoches

We took a detour along the Longleaf scenic byway to Natchitoches (from what we can work out, its pronounces Nack-a-tosh). On the way we passed a long convoy of the army – all sorts of vehicles including armoured Humvees with gun turrets.

The scenic byway wound through the conifer forest. Very different scenery to the swamps we had been used to. We stopped at an overlook for lunch and to see the view. Not as pretty as the Rocky Mountains, but beats the swamp any day.

Into Natchitoches, the oldest French settlement in Louisiana. The movie Steel Magnolias was filmed here. It was established as a trading post with nearby Spanish settlements, and we toured a replica of the Fort St. Jean Baptiste.

Parked up and listening to jazz while we eat dinner and relax.

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19 January – Nottoway to Kincaid

We had a lovely buffet breakfast and tried out grits. Grits are kind of a porridge made from rough ground corn. Didn’t really taste of much. We left Nottoway in pouring rain and headed for Lafayette.

At Lafayette we visited an Acadian village. Acadians were French speaking people from Canada, who migrated to Louisiana. The name Cajun is a kind of shortened version of Acadian.  

“Vermilionville is a living history museum and folk-life park that promotes and propagates the cultural resources of the Acadian, Native American, and Creole people – from the time period 1765 to 1890”. There are 7 houses and in each was a crafts-person demonstrating crafts of the time. We saw cotton spinning, quilting, wood turning, and a fiddle player who played Creole music for us while telling us about the history and background of his people.

Some fun facts. The houses are built with mud mixed with the local Spanish moss. Spanish moss, when dried out, was used to stuff cushions, mattresses and even the seats of Model T Fords. When a household had a marriageable girl (between 13 and 19, by which time you were on the shelf) the father would climb the chimney and paint a white band around it to signal to the men that there was an eligible match available. When all the girls had husbands, the chimney was painted all white to say “move along, nothing to see here!

We headed north and suddenly the swamps turned into conifer forests and rolling hills. We found a Parks Service campground in a National Forest with a sign at the gate saying “beware of gators, deer and wild hogs”…

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18 January – New Orleans to Nottoway

Saying goodbye to New Orleans, we followed the River Road toward Baton Rouge to see some more of the fabulous plantation houses. First we went to Oak Alley. We approached from the rear of the building, and it was first glimpsed through the oak trees and box hedges that surround it. 

Walking around to the front we walked the famous Oak Alley that gives the plantation its name. The oaks were planted some 300 years ago by an unknown person, who created an avenue of live oak trees from the Mississippi River to where the house was built 100 years later.

Oak Alley was built in 1837. The widow of it’s founder was incapable as a business woman and also lived considerable beyond her means. That, coupled with the Civil War and the freeing of slaves, meant that Oak Alley was turned over to creditors and sold at auction. Eventually purchased and restored, the house is now operated by a foundation.

We stayed at Oak Alley for a quick café lunch – Steve had a Cajun platter with seafood gumbo, red beans (like baked beans in a bacon flavoured sauce), crawfish and jambalaya. A bit of everything that is classic Cajun cooking.

Our next stop was Nottoway, the largest surviving plantation home in the South. Painted white, and 3 stories high, it has 53000 sq ft, 64 rooms, 15 foot ceilings, 11 foot doorways, and at the time had 3 indoor bathrooms with hot and cold running water and flush toilets. Built in 1859 with no expense spared, Nottoway was intended to be an ostentatious display of the wealth of the Randolph family. Its commanding position on the Mississippi ensured that it could be seen and admired from the road or from the river. 

Nottoway survived the civil war undamaged because the lady of the house insisted on remaining at home while her husband moved the farming operations to Texas. She confronted the advancing Union army from the terrace, armed with only a kitchen knife.... and invited them in to take tea. Her hospitality earned her, and Nottoway, a reprieve from further attacks, although the home was occasionally shelled by passing warships. As was the case with so many of these gracious homes, Nottoway passed through a succession of owners and was very run down, when it was purchased and restored. In 1985 the property was bought by Sir Paul Ramsay from Sydney and developed into the venue, hotel and restaurant it is today.

As we were on the tour, the guide mentioned that you could stay in the house. We checked it out and it decided to take a room. We were in a gorgeous room on the top floor, in the rotunda. The room is half round with a deep balcony to walk around, an open fire place and a canopied bed. We sat out on the main upstairs verandah in white painted rocking chairs and watched the sun setting over the Mississippi. We had the run of the house and we were the only guests staying upstairs, so we wandered around taking pictures. Dinner in the restaurant was lovely.

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