Natchez Trace Parkway - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 789

At milepost 10 the region's Indian heritage is highlighted by an ancient ceremonial site
known as Emerald Mound. Built about 700 years ago by the Mississippians (ancestors of
the now-extinct Natchez tribe), the flat-topped, 35-foot-high earthen structure covers eight
acres, making it the second-largest ceremonial mound in America. Emerald Mound was
once surmounted by smaller secondary mounds and temples, but most vestiges of these
have long since disappeared as completely as their builders. Nearby is the entrance to
Natchez State Park. A good spot for camping and fishing, it includes four lakes, a beach,
an inn and restaurant, cabins, and 250 miles of horse riding trails.
3. Mt. Locust
ThroughoutitslonghistorytheNatchezTracehasshownthewayforanincrediblecaravan
of travelers: trappers and traders, pioneers and preachers, soldiers and scoundrels. But of
all those who have trodden here, the group that is perhaps most identified with the trace
are the riverboat men who, starting in the late 18th century, began a regular trading routine
with cities on the lower Mississippi.
Known as Kaintucks (though they came from many states besides Kentucky), these
rough-and-ready entrepreneurs guided their flatboats and rafts down the Mississippi to de-
liver goods at Natchez or New Orleans. Once their business had been completed, they sold
their boats for lumber and trekked home on foot rather than push upstream against the cur-
rent. Darkened by the sun and often dressed in tatters, they had, according to one observer,
“beards eighteen days old, adding to the singularity of their appearance, which was alto-
gether savage.”
By 1810 as many as 10,000 Kaintucks a year were trudging northward toward
Nashville on the trace. Before long, such heavy traffic had turned a crude, narrow wilder-
ness trail into a clearly defined route. (In 1806 the trace was broadened to 12 feet by order
of Thomas Jefferson to make it passable for wagons.) To serve the boatless boatmen who
facedalongjourneyhome,aseriesofinns,calledstands,sprangupalongtheroute,spaced
aboutoneday'swalkapart.Ofthe50originalstands,onlyMt.Locustremains.Restoredto
its 1820 appearance, the simple wooden house is built on pilings to keep the interior cool
during summer; the design also features a long front gallery, or porch. Most of these prim-
itive shelters provided little more than a plate of cornmeal mush and a spot to sleep on a
wooden floor, but to weary travelers making their way on a journey of nearly 500 miles,
they must have seemed as inviting as any posh New Orleans hotel.