Natchez Trace

I'm late posting this as the wi-fi connection at the Natchez Trace Campground was just too slow.

We left the campground in Tupelo MS on Sunday May 30 and drove up the Natchez Trace the Thousand Trails Natchez Trail Preserve, near the town of Hohenwald TN. The Trace is very old trail used by the Indians long before the white man showed up. Men would float down the Mississippi River to sell and trade their goods in New Orleans in the 17 & 18 hundreds and then, since they could not paddle against the current in the river, the men had to travel back north. The best way to go was on the Trace. Some could afford a house, most had to walk. The Trace gained fame during the War of 1812 when soldiers marched down the Trace to help defeat the British in the Battle of New Orleans. If the British would have won the US would not have been able to retain the lands of the Louisiana Purchase and would have been limited to the northern territories. But, having won, the US had all the Land east of the Mississippi River, jumping off point for the westward movement. In 1835 along came the steam boats. Now there was a way to return up the Mississippi and thus began the decline of the Trace.

We ran into a few raindrops as we traveled. The sky was a little overcast buy pleasant.

Just north of north of the campground we are staying at is the place that Merriweather Lewis died under mysterious circumstances.

We were here in 2007 and I took pictures that I’m including in the upload that you can access at : http://picasaweb.google.com/jackbarbic/NatchezTraceRSForUpload#

To get to the Thousand Trails Natchez Trace Preserve you have to go under a bridge with 11’0” clearance. The way under the bridge is to get off the paved road and on to the gravel shoulder that provided the necessary clearance. There are some poor souls with RV’s that have tried to get their higher than 11’ RV’s under this bridge……………bridge wins 100% of the time.