Along the parkway’s 444 miles are dense forests, green pastures, treed swamps and gentle cityscapes highlighting slices of history dating back to antiquity. This once natural earthen corridor was walked on by native Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians followed by settlers, trappers, traders, and eventually modern-day adventurers after Natchez Trace became part of the National Park System in 1938. Our drive takes us to Native American burial grounds, Civil War battlefields, and antebellum homes. “It’s a nice crossroads—like a green swath. You’re on this lovely road with trees on both sides and no com- mercial vehicles,” says Leslie Bruning, a tour guide from Natchez, the starting point of the Trace. “You’re not going to find a filling station but will have to leave the parkway to find one. It’s a very beautiful drive all the way up to Nashville.” We begin our journey with a visit to Natchez, once a cotton capital where history comes alive today with its antebellum mansions and southern traditions. The city center sits upon 200-foot-high bluffs along the Missis- sippi River from where wealthy homeowners had dra- matic views of the plantations below—farmland replenished with soil carried by the mighty river when flooding its shores.
We visit a few of the old mansions including the Greek Revival Stanton Hall with its Corinthian columns, grand chandeliers, and Italian marble mantels. Dunleith Plantation, now an inn, has 14-foot ceilings and a res- taurant in a restored 1790’s carriage house. My favorite is Longwood, the country’s largest octagonal house. A six- story structure with a central rotunda, the original own- ers lived on the bottom floor since upper-floor construc- tion inside was never completed. “The family didn’t have the money after the Civil War to finish it,” says Bruner. King’s Tavern, dating back to 1769, is Natchez’s old- est building. Upon looking at its worn wooden façade, it doesn’t surprise me to hear tales of its resident ghost named Madeline. As the story goes, the original owner took on a young server as a mistress. “His wife had her murdered and the two men that did it vanished as well,” says bar manager Ricky Woolfolk. “During remodeling in the 1930s, part of the fireplace wall collapsed and they found the skeletal remains of all three and a Spanish dagger.” Upon leaving Natchez, we hop on the parkway and drive about 10 miles to Emerald Mound, the second largest temple mound in the U.S. The grassy hill atop eight acres of pastureland was used as a burial area from 1300 to 1600 by ancestors of the Natchez Indians, who
10 COAST TO COAST FALL 2014
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