2014 Fall

Slow down and tour the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson

there and pulled out a guitar from this same counter right here. Nothing has changed,” adds Hite. “Elvis plucked on it, banged on it. He told his mother he’ll take the guitar. We like to think that musical history was made right in front of this counter.” Nearby is the Elvis Presley Birthplace, Museum, and Church. Elvis was born in 1935 and lived for three years in the whitewashed, two-room shack built by his father. Simple era furniture fills the wallpapered rooms. The museum has artifacts that highlight the singer’s life from the personal collection of Janelle McComb, a close family friend. Also on the grounds is the actual church building where the Presleys attended services with sing- ing and music that influenced a young Elvis. “The church is really what made him who he was. He loved the gospel music he learned in the little church here,” says Blair Hill, Janelle McComb’s grandson. “His life was hard. The Great Depression was going on and the family struggled to make ends meet, but they made it and were always together. Elvis was very humble—he always remembered his roots.” Nearby Civil War landmarks include the Tupelo Na- tional Battlefield at milepost 260, where the 1864 battle forced the Confederate army to retreat. The graves of 13

unknown Confederate soldiers lie at milepost 269. From Tupelo, the parkway slices through the north- east tip of Alabama and into the foothills of Tennessee, stopping just south of Nashville. Highlights and detours include the birthplace of Helen Keller in Tuscumbia, Alabama; the gravesite and monument to explorer Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark at milepost 386 in Tennessee; and the expansive Double Arch Bridge west of Franklin, just before the parkway’s ending point. Another interesting detour is the Vicksburg National Military Park southwest of Jackson. Monuments pay tribute to the Civil War’s 46-day siege of Confederate- held Vicksburg in 1863, which resulted in Union con- trol of the Mississippi River. I end my drive along Natchez Trace in Tupelo, opting to save the remaining part for another trip. I leave the Trace better understanding travel before superhighways and cheap airfares. “Its beauty is that it’s like a step back in time at a slower pace,” says Jennie Bradford Curlee of the Tupelo Convention & Visitors Bureau. “These days you travel the highways and you see gas stations and

billboards. Instead, the Trace is so simple. You see trees, pastures and historical stops where you can learn something all along the way.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: www.nps.gov/natr

FALL 2014 COAST TO COAST 13

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