Well, that was fun! 440 miles. Two weeks. Two States. 3 State Parks. And one major bucket list item checked off.
For this post, I'm trying something a little different. In other installments, I've highlighted places of big interests to me and dug into the history and significance of them.
This time, I'm going to just pick some other smaller spots and do a quick description of each. Kinda a grab bag, I guess. So, here goes.
Side note (you knew there had to be one:) Some of these places weren't on the Trace Parkway, but were close by.
Cemeteries All along the route, there are hidden cemeteries. As you walk through the woods, you happen upon small burial sites, some with elaborate marble crypts and statuary. These were part of old plantations and homes that were abandoned at the end of the Civil War. Some tell sad stories, like the three small graves of children that died within a year of each other.
Plantations From the well maintained and stately Melrose to the ruins of Windsor, the wealth of the landowners and the extravagance on display show how the extremely wealthy slave/land owners lived in the Antebellum era.
And a tour of Melrose, now a national historical, site gives insight into how important slaves were to the economy and lifestyle of the South. It also illustrates how many of those slaves begun their life of freedom after the war, many times with the help of their former owners.
Slavery No discussion of the Trace would be complete without an examination of the impact of slavery to the area and how the war changed the lives of the slaves and their owners.
From the small park in Natchez at the site of a slave auction house that includes the chains used to hold them in place during the sale, to Contraband Park in Corinth where escaped or freed slaves lived during the war and the aforementioned Melrose, a story of the trials, tribulations and emancipation is spelled out in a way that gives the visitor a feeling of the day.
Sunken Trace and Loess No folks, that's not the big box hardware store. Loess (pronounced Low - ess) is a loose layer of fine particles blown in over thousands of years. A lot of the trace goes through a huge deposit of loess and as a result, long stretches are sunken as much as 20 feet below the surface. An quick look would make one think these "Sunken Trace" paths were creek beds, but they're actually worn down by the passage of thousand of years of foot, horse and wagon travel.
In a few spots along the parkway, you can see exposed cliffs made of this soft material.
Farms and Stands As you travel on the Parkway, you pass through fields of corn, cotton and other crops. This area has long been a center of agriculture.
The history of farming in the area can be experienced by touring a restored tobacco barn. Walk through the barn and see how the tobacco leaves were harvested, dried and packaged for sale and transport.
Stands were the motels of the early Trace. Waypoints for weary travelers, they were run by Indians, ferry operators, and in one case, a former slave.
My favorite stand story is Sheboss House. It was run by a White woman and her Indian husband, who could barely speak English. When travelers would inquire about lodging, the husband would point to the wife and say "She Boss." The name stuck.
Architecture From Birdsong Hollow, a double arched bridge at the northern terminus of the Parkway, which won the 1995 Presidential Award for Design Excellence to the Church at Rocky Springs, an abandoned town, as well as the plantations, Indian mounds and various other buildings, the history of American Architecture is on prominent display.
Quick side note: The church still holds services today, over a hundred years after the town was abandoned.
Natural beauty Everywhere you turn, Nature is on display in abundance. Waterfalls, vistas, trees, fields bluffs, rugged and soft, around every turn is a new experience.
And if you look real close, right next to the tobacco barn, you'll find a 2 mile stretch of the old Trace you can drive down to get a feel for what those travelers experienced.
Folks, this ain't all of it. I could have spent another month on the Trace, and to tell all the story would take a book. As a matter of fact, there have been books written about it, by authors much better than me. But you'll have to find those. Or better yet, come on over to the Trace and see for yourself!
That's it for the Trace (for now). Next time, it's back to battle with the stories of fighting at Corinth and Shiloh. Until then,
Later, Folks.
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