The Natchez Trace was a 440-mile-long path extending from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, linking the Cumberland, the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers. It was used extensively by Native Americans and early Caucasian explorers as both a trade and transit route in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Today, the trail has been commemorated with the 444-mile-long Natchez Trace Parkway which follows the trail's approximate path. (See TNGenWeb's picture [1].) The trail itself has a long and rich history, filled with brave explorers, dastardly outlaws and daring settlers. Parts of the original trail are still accessible. Natchez is a city located in Adams CountyGR6 in southwest Mississippi. ... Nickname: Music City; Buckle of the Bible Belt Location in Davidson County and the state of Tennessee Coordinates: Country United States State Tennessee Counties Davidson County Founded: 1779 Incorporated: 1806 Mayor Bill Purcell (D) Area    - City 526. ... Length 1,106 km Elevation of the source 480 m Average discharge 3,217 m³/s Area watershed 46,830 km² Origin Oven Fork, Kentucky Mouth Ohio River Basin countries United States The Cumberland River is an important waterway in the southern United States. ... A riverboat passing under the Henley Street Bridge on the Tennessee River The river viewed from the top of Neyland Stadium. ... The Mississippi River, derived from the old Ojibwe word misi-ziibi meaning great river (gichi-ziibi big river at its headwaters), is the longest river in the United States; the second-longest is the Missouri River, which flows into the Mississippi. ... An Aani (Atsina) named Assiniboin Boy. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Events and trends The Bonneville Slide blocks the Columbia River near the site of present-day Cascade Locks, Oregon with a land bridge 200 feet (60 m) high. ... Events and Trends Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815). ... The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 444 mile (715 km) long parkway, in the form of a limited-access two-lane road, in the southeastern United States. ... The Natchez Trace Trail is a designated National Scenic Trail in the United States that currently runs some 64 miles along the Natchez Trace Parkway through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. ...

A cypress swamp along the side of the Trace near Jackson, Mississippi. Photo by Roy Adkins.

Image File history File linksMetadata NatchezCypressSwamp. ... Image File history File linksMetadata NatchezCypressSwamp. ...

Origins of the Natchez Trace

The Trace, like many early footpaths, traces its beginnings to the natural wanderings of bison, deer and other game. After Native Americans first began to settle the land, they began to blaze the trail further, until it became a relatively (for the time) well-worn path traversable by horse in single-file, though it may have been traveled in part before, particularly by famed Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. Binomial name Bison bison (Linnaeus, 1758) Subspecies B. b. ... Subfamilies Capreolinae Cervinae Hydropotinae Muntiacinae A deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. ... Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated (such as venison). ... Hernando de Soto. ...

The first recorded Caucasian to travel the Trace in its entirety was an unnamed Frenchman in 1742, who wrote of the trail and its "miserable conditions." To Caucasians, who were not conditioned to the rigors of the journey, the assistance of Native Americans—specifically, the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw—was vital. The earliest formal usage of the trail, in fact, was for trade between those three Native American nations through which the trail passed. The French Republic or France (French: République française or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. ... For other uses, see Cherokee (disambiguation). ... The Choctaws, or Chatas, are a Native American people originally from the southeast United States (Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana) of the Muskoghean linguistic group. ... The Chickasaws are a Native American people of the United States, originally from present-day Mississippi, now mostly living in Oklahoma. ...

Development and Disappearance of the Trace

It was not until 1801, when the United States Armed Forces began blazing the trail for use as a postal route, that major work was performed on the Trace to prepare it as a thoroughfare for travelers. Treaties were signed with the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, and work began, first solely by soldiers reassigned from West Tennessee, and then later by civilian contract. By 1809, the trail was fully navigable by wagon. Critical to the success of the Trace as a trade route were inns and trading posts, referred to at the time as "stands." For the most part, the stands developed southbound from the head of the trail in Nashville. The Union Jack, flag of the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the United States Army United States Navy United States Air Force United States Marine Corps United States Coast Guard Note: The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. ... West Tennessee is one of the three traditional regions in the U.S. state of Tennessee. ... 1809 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Inns are establishments where travellers can procure food, drink, and lodging. ... A trading post is a place where trading of goods takes place. ...

Many of the first settlements in Mississippi and Tennessee developed along the Natchez Trace. Some of the most prominent of these were Washington, the old capital of Mississippi; Greenville, where Andrew Jackson plied his occupation as a slave trader; and Port Gibson, among others.^[2] Washington, Mississippi, is a small town in Adams County, Mississippi, close to Natchez. ... Greenville is a city located in Washington County, Mississippi. ... Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh President of the United States (1829-1837), first governor of Florida (1821), general of the Battle of New Orleans (1815), a co-founder of the Democratic Party, and the eponym of the era of Jacksonian democracy. ... Port Gibson is a city located in Claiborne County, Mississippi. ...

By 1816, the continued development of both Memphis and Jackson's Military Road, a direct line to New Orleans, Louisiana from Nashville, began shifting trade both east and west. The Trace entered a steady decline, and as author William C. Davis writes in his book A Way Through the Wilderness, it was "a victim of its own success." It had highlighted the benefits of trade with the mouth of the Mississippi, and because of the improved ease of water-bound trade, particularly the dawn of steamboat culture, it became obsolete. In 1830, the Trace was officially abandoned as an official road, and began to disappear back into the wilderness from whence it came. 1816 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Flag Seal Nickname: The River City, The Bluff City, M-Town Location Location in Shelby County and the state of Tennessee Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Tennessee Shelby County Mayor W. W. Herenton (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 294. ... Jacksons Military Road was a route from Nashville, Tennessee to New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Nickname: The Crescent City, The Big Easy, The City That Care Forgot, NOLA (acronym for New Orleans, LA) Location in the State of Louisiana and the United States Coordinates: Country United States State Louisiana Parish Orleans Founded 1718 Mayor Ray Nagin (D) Area    - City 350. ... Paddle steamers - Lucerne-Switzerland This article is about the water vessel. ... Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix commemorates the July Revolution 1830 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Bushwhackers, Bibles and Boats

Despite its brief lifespan, the Trace served an essential function in the years it was in existence. It was the only reliable and most expedient link between the goods of the North and the trading ports of Louisiana. This brought all sorts of people down the Trace: itinerant preachers, highwaymen and traders were just a few. This Article does not cite its references or sources. ...

The circuit preachers were some of the most notable of the lot. Unlike its physical development, the "spiritual development" of the Trace started from the Natchez end up: several Methodist preachers began working a circuit along the Trace as early as 1800, and claimed a membership of 1,067 Caucasians and 267 African-Americans in 1812. The United Methodist Church is the largest Methodist denomination, and the second-largest Protestant one, in the United States. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ...

The Methodists were soon joined in Natchez by other Protestant religions, including the Baptists and Presbyterians. The Presbyterians and their offshoot, the Cumberland Presbyterians, were more active than the Methodists or Baptists in procuring converts along the Trace itself, including the Native American population—the Presbyterians starting from the south, the Cumberland Presbyterians from the north. Baptist churches are part of a Christian movement often regarded as an evangelical, protestant denomination. ... Presbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. ... On February 4, 1810 in the log cabin home (near what later became the town of Burns, Dickson County, Tennessee) of Rev. ...

As with much of the unsettled West, the Trace was also a hotbed for banditry. Much of it centered around Natchez Under-The-Hill, as compared with its more tame sister city at Natchez On-The-Hill. Under-the-Hill, where the port to the Mississippi was located, was a hotbed for gamblers, prostitutes and drunkenness. The rowdiest of them all were the Kaintucks, the wild frontiersmen from upriver who came in on the steamboats and flatboats loaded with goods, left them in Natchez in exchange for pockets full of cash, and summarily treated Natchez Under-the-Hill as what could be generously called an early 1800s Las Vegas, Nevada or Amsterdam. Nickname: The Entertainment Capital of the World; Sin City Location of Las Vegas in Nevada Coordinates: County Clark Mayor Oscar B. Goodman(D) Area    - City 131. ... Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 743,905 (1 April 2006) Demonym Amsterdammer Coordinates Website www. ...

Still worse dangers lurked in the wilderness outside the city boundaries on the Trace itself. Highwaymen such as John Murrell and Samuel Mason terrorized travelers along the road, and operated large gangs of organized brigands in one of the first examples of land-based American organized crime. The tumultuous history of John Murrell (also spelled as Murel and Murrel), a legendary bandit operating in the United States along the Mississippi River in the mid-1800s, causes almost in as much confusion as his name. ... Organized crime is crime carried out systematically by formal criminal organizations. ...

The Mystery of Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition fame, met his mysterious end while traveling on the Trace. Lewis had stopped at Grinder's Stand near current-day Hohenwald, Tennessee for rest. Extremely depressed by the state of his financial affairs (he was deeply in debt), he became drunk as he had many times during the trip. He asked the owner of the stand for gunpowder, which she gave him, intimidated by his behavior. A few hours later, two shots rang out in the night—Lewis had apparently shot himself twice (highly improbable, given the difficulty of [re]loading muzzle-loading firearms, especially after being wounded), once in the head and once in the chest. He lived until the next morning. Meriwether Lewis, portrait by Charles Willson Peale Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Corps of Discovery, whose mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase. ... Lewis and Clark The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) was the first United States overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back, led by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark of the United States Army. ... Grinders Stand was the tavern located on the historic Natchez Trace where Meriwether Lewis died. ... Hohenwald is a city in Lewis County, Tennessee. ...

His death went unquestioned as a suicide for many years. However, as time passed, more details emerged—had he also been stabbed? Had one of his rivals, particularly Robert Grinder, owner of the stand, killed and robbed him? Or was it a more politically motivated killing, an assassination against the governor of the Louisiana Territory? The United States in 1810, following the Louisiana Purchase. ...

In 1996 James E. Starr, a professor at George Washington University, attempted to procure permission, supported by several researchers and 160 descendants of Lewis, to exhume Lewis' remains to put the mystery to rest. The National Park Service, which oversees the grave site in Hohenwald, denied permission. Though a court later ruled that the exhumation was justified, the NPS has so far successfully resisted the pressure to exhume Lewis.   The George Washington University (GWU) is a private, coeducational, non-sectarian university located in Washington, D.C.. Founded in 1821 as The Columbian College on land provided by former President George Washington, the university has since developed into one of the worlds leading educational and research institutions. ... The National Park Service (NPS) is the United States federal agency that manages all National Parks, many National Monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. ...

Today, Grinder's Stand and the city of Hohenwald lie in Lewis County, Tennessee. Lewis County is a county located in the state of Tennessee. ...

References

• ↑ Cotterill, R. S. (April 1921). "The Natchez Trace". Tennessee Historical Magazine 7 (1): 29–35.
• Crutchfield, James A. (1985). The Natchez Trace: A Pictorial History. Nashville, Tennessee: Rutledge Hill Press. ISBN 0-934395-03-9.
• Daniels, Jonathan (1985). Devil's Backbone: Story of the Natchez Trace. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company. ISBN 0-88289-438-2.
• Davis, William C. (1995) A Way Through the Wilderness: The Natchez Trace and the Civilization of the Southern Frontier. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-016921-4.