, 1\& chez Trace . PARKWAY I TENNESSEE • ALABAMA· MISSISSIPPI THE NATCHEZ TRACE- A POST ROAD A post road between Natchez and Nash- ville was established by Congress in 1800. ",, The Postmaster General complained that Natchez Trace it would be used only" at a great expense to the public on account of the badness of --E; the road which is said to be no other than an Indian footpath very devious and nar- row." He then suggested to the Secretary of War that United States troops stationed in the Southwest be used" in clearing out a wagon road and bridging the creeks and UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, J. A. Krug, Secretary. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE,Newton B. Drury, Director causewaying the swamps between Nash- ville and Natchez." Late in 1801, permission to improve the * The Natchez Trace Parkway memorial- gerber led in a norrheasterl y direction from land which occupied it until ousted by the road was secured from the Chickasaw and izes a series oj Indian paths that became a present-day Natchez, Miss., to Nashville, Spanish in 1779. After the American Rev- Choctaw Indians. Gen. James Wilkinson, wilderness roadway between Natchez and Tenn. Thus the Natchez, Choctaw, Chick- olution, the United States acquired the commanding the United States Army in the Nashville and during 1800-1830 succes- asaw, and probably the Cherokee Indian English claims to the region. From 1783, West, then prepared a map of the Natchez sively a post road and highway binding the tribes were linked together. This trail both Spain and the United States claimed Trace. He ended his description of the Old Southwest to the Union. system became increasingly important after the region, with the Spanish occupying survey with a penetrating analysis of the the coming of the white man, who used it the southern pan, their most important diplomatic and military importance of the Trace: .. This road being compleated, I ORIGINS OF THE NATCHEZ in his military, political, and commercial outpost being at Natchez. Americans had activities while pushing into the region shall consider our Southern extremity se- TRACE already begun to move into the northern from the Gulf of Mexico or from the At- part of the area, and, in 1780, they estab- cured, the Indians in that quarter at our feet, When the white man began to explore lantic Seaboard. Later, it was known as lished Nashville as their southwestern- & the adjacent Province laid open to us." the southern part of the United States, he the Natchez Trace. most outpost. Work on the road began late in 1801. found a network of beaten paths, perhaps During the eighteenth century the N at- Whether the troops actuall y cleared all the road from Duck River Ridge, 30 miles south first made by buffalo or other wild animals THE NATCHEZ TRACE- chez Trace came to be used more and more of Nashville, to Grindstone Ford, near Port - in quest of salt licks or food. The Indian EIGHTEENTH CENTURY by white men. French traders and mis- added others and turned many of the older sionaries traveled over it; later the English, Gibson, Miss., is not known. Increased ones to his own use as warpaths, hunting The area through which the Natchez and then the Spanish. After the middle traffic, after the acquisition of Louisiana in courses, or trails linking village with vil- Trace ran was first explored by Frenchmen 1780's, men from Kentucky and adjacent 1803, called for further improvement. In age and tribe with tribe. Use of these during the early 1700's. Their first penna- parts of the old West returned to their 1806, Congress provided money, and addi- trails by prehistoric Indians is suggested nent settlement in this region was made at homes over the Natchez Trace afoot, after tional improvements were made under the by physical remains-mounds, village Natchez in 1716. In 1733, a map of the having floated flour and other farm prod- direction of the Postmaster General. Mich- sites, cemeteries, and fortifications- region had been made showing the Indian ucts to New Orleans on flatboats. aux, a French traveler, estimated that work located along the various routes. Pioneer trail, which later was called the Natchez In 1798, Spain, while retaining the lands done by the Army reduced the distance settlers frequently called such a trail a Trace, running from Natchez to the Choc- west of the Mississippi and along the Gulf from Natchez to Nashville by 100 miles. trace, a word which in old French suggests taw villages and thence to the Chickasaw Coast, surrendered Natchez, along with The Postmaster General estimated that the its origin as a line of footprints or animal villages in northeast Mississippi. The all lands north of the thirty-first degree, 1806 improvement would reduce the dis- tracks. French settled on the Gulf Coast and along north latitude, to the United States. Mis- tance by an additional 50 miles. These traces, or trails, showed a marked the Mississippi River at New Orleans and sissippi Territory was immediately organ- THE NATCHEZ TRACE- tendency to follow watershed divides in Natchez and established forts and trading ized, with its capital at Natchez. The A PIONEER HIGHWAY an effort to avoid stream crossings and posts elsewhere. They were interested in new territory had a population of more swamps, even though the distances were Indian trade and made Ii ttle effort to colo- than 8,000 people, mostly English-speak- After the year 1800, the Natchez Trace greater. Several of these trails, though nize the interior. ing, who had settled there during the became a colorful, dramatic, and vital seg- individually unimportant, when joined to- In 1763, France ceded the region to Eng- period of British control, 1763-79. ment of the American experience. The fig- 783553°-48 ures of the Indian, the explorer, and the The Choctaw Indians by the treaties of Prior to 1798, the existence of the N at- hunter were followed by the Kentucky Doak's Stand, 1820, and Dancing Rabbit, chez Trace put considerable pressure on boatmen, the circuit riding preachers, sol- 1830, and the Chickasaws by the Treaty of Spain to surrender her claim to Natchez diers, agents of government, and the set- Pontotoc Creek, 1832, surrendered all claim and later to West Florida, as that part of tlers passing this way. to lands occupied by their ancestors for Louisiana east of the Mississippi, except Meriwether Lewis, the great explorer of centuries and moved west. Soon these New Orleans, was then called. After the the West, traveled over a section of the lands were settled and the wilderness lower Mississi ppi Valley became American, old road in 1809 and met death at Grinders character of the road was lost. the Natchez Trace provided the surest Stand in Tennessee. Shortly after the be- By the beginning of the fourth decade of means of communication between the east- ginning of the War of 1812, a brigade of the nineteenth century this old road had ern United States and the outlying com- Tennessee militia was ordered to Natchez, entered into decline. The development of munities of Mississippi and Louisiana. and, on arrival early in 1813, received the steamboat as a means of transportation For a full generation the Natchez Trace orders to disband. The commander, An- induced travelers to choose other routes of was the mostly heavily traveled, and thus drew Jackson, refused to obey the order. travel. Thus was closed a brief chapter of the most important, highway of the old Subsequently, he and his men marched the frontier epic. Some sections of the Southwest. home over the Natchez Trace. Because he Trace were abandoned and the ground it- shared their hardships, it was on this march self given over to the growing of cotton, THE PARKWAY that his men admiringly called him" Old corn, or tobacco. Instead of the Indian Hickory." Two years later a large num- war cry or the clanking of spur and sabre, The Parkway, which is to be 450 miles ber of the victorious army at the Battle of the creak of the loaded wagon or the long, with an average width of 800 feet, .New Orleans triumphantly marched home- rumbling of a carriage was heard. The is now under construction and will me- The Natchez Trace, ajter more than a ward over the Natchez Trace. Aaron old Natchez Trace had now become a morialize the old Natchez Trace. Like the century oj use, has become a sunken road Burr and other names and events of the series of local roads connecting newly es- Trace, it will extend from Natchez, Miss., shaded by overhanging trees. history of the old Southwest are associated tablished farms or thriving new com- to Nashville, Tenn., and will follow fairly munrnes. with the Natchez Trace. closely the route of the old road. It will section may be entered from United States feature a motorway along which places of Highway No. 61 at Selma, 12 miles north historic interest, such as parts of the old D'Evereux on the Natchez Trace near Natchez, Miss. of Natchez, Miss., and another from United Trace, "stands" or inn sites, ferry sites, States Highway No. 51, 6 miles north of and Indian mounds, will be preserved and Jackson, Miss. Before entering the Park- suitably marked to explain and illustrate way, local inquiry should be made as to the use of the old route. travel conditions. Congress by an act approved May 21, 1934, authorized the "survey of the old REGULATIONS Indian Trail known as the Natchez Trace, with a view of constructing a national road The National Park Service regulations on this route to be known as the Natchez are designed for the protection of the nat- Trace Par kwa y.' Later, Congress approved ural features and scenery, as well as for the establishment of the Parkway as one the comfort and convenience of the visitors.