Walking my Ancestors’ Footsteps; The Natchez Trace in Mississippi

In 2009 I went on vacation to see the place my Grandfather (born 1906) grew up in the Mississippi woods. On the way there from Jackson, the capitol, I followed a roadway called the Natchez Trace to Tupelo, although it runs all the way to Nashville, TN. The roadway parallels an old wagon trail and former Native American pathway that was used by the traders or pioneer settlers coming from Tennessee to the Mississippi River, along with many African slaves that accompanied them. My intent was to walk around in the woods where my grandfather (step-grandfather) had grown up in his grandparents farmhouse near Oxford, but then I realized that his great-grandparents had to have either walked or ridden mules with a covered wagon down this trail to their original house in Pontotoc, MS.

I decided to walk some of the Natchez Trace but I was too frightened to walk more than a very short distance from the various parking lots the park service has built along it. I saw one notice advising of venomous snakes and spiders on the trail. At the first ranger station, a ranger showed me a picture on his cellphone of an enormous rattlesnake he had seen in the parking lot. They sold me a hickory walking stick and advised me to be careful as I was alone.

My next stop was the Cypress swamp on the trail. There were local people enjoying the view from the bridge without a care in the world. I asked a man where the alligators were, and he told me to keep watching the floating logs until one of them moved. Then I would know it was an alligator. I did walk maybe a 3rd of a mile beyond this point and took another photograph but got scared and returned to my car to try the next parking lot along the Trace.

There was a green and lush beauty to this entire area that really effected me as I am from Denver, where everything is dry and a lot cooler. Along with this lush green beauty, there was an incredible feeling of heat, even in September. All around was the sound of birds and insects singing, and bees buzzing. Every step I kept looking around to make sure nothing had fallen into my hair, or to make sure I wasn’t about to step into something dangerous.

The path that made the Trace was cut into the soft ground by centuries of traffic as you can see in the photograph. In some places it is several feet deep. At the next stop I got brave enough to climb down a set of wood stairs into the Trace and walk another short ways along it, maybe the equivalent of a block. I felt very humbled as I understood that people before me had walked it all the way from Nashville, TN in earlier days.

Attached is a link to the Natchez Trace page from the National Parks Service along with the safety warnings. In addition to the venomous snakes and spiders, they have added fire ants and falling tree limbs.

https://www.nps.gov/natt/planyourvisit/safety.htm

If you are in that area, and brave enough to hike the Natchez Trace let us know.