Sunday, March 18, 2018

Natchez Trace – Mile 193.1 to Mile 320

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 Mile 221.4   Old Trace – Even though the trace hasn’t been used since the 1880s there are still sections like this where it’s easy to imagine the travelers trudging along and creating a depression.

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Mile 232.4   Bynum Mounds -  A paved path makes a loop past two burial mounds that are about 2,000 years old. Four people, most likely royalty, were buried in the mounds. The path is accessible.

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Mile 261.8  Chickasaw Village Site – Concrete paths follow the foundation lines of a fort and three houses that were in use into the early 1800s. The paths are not connected so the site is not wheelchair accessible.

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Mile 266.0   Parkway Visitor Center - The only interpretive center along the trace with exhibits covering the history and geology of the entire route.

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Mile 269.4  Confederate Gravesites -  Graves of 13 unknown Confederate soldiers. Nothing is know of the circumstances of their deaths and how they came to be buried here. Paved accessible path.

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Mile 286.7  Pharr Mounds – The largest archeological site in northern Mississippi. Eight burial mounds used between 1-200 AD.

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Mile 293.2   Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway – The waterway  connects the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River. This shortcut was first proposed in the mid 1770s by Sieur de Bienville, the founder of Mobile, but not constructed until 1985. Short, paved accessible trail with a few rough spots.

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Mile 308.4  Cave Spring – Small cave probably used by Native Americans as a source of water and building stone. Short, paved trail to overlook.IMG_0773

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Mile 308.8   Bear Creek Mound - Village site was occupied as early as 8,000 B.C. and a temple sat on top of the large flat mound.

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Mile 320  Side Trip – The trace campgrounds do not have dump stations so we looped off the trace to spend the night at Rose Trail County Park Campground. The campground has four spurs that all dead end in turnarounds. Two are full hookup; one has water, electricity, and a dump station; and one appears to be a tent camping area. There are only two restrooms and many of the sites lack tables. None of the sites are designated as accessible but most are usable. 

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Trace  33.41752, -89.26746

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4 comments:

  1. Sounds great, we took advantage this winter between our summer rv trips and traveld to Vienna Austria,Phillippines and in June a jeep trip to Georgia Asia .Will be comming to pick the rig in July to explore Idaho .
    Happy Trails

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    1. Looking forward to trip reports on all of your winter trips!

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  2. Years ago, my sister, Nannie, and I were fortunate to walk a section of the old Tunica Trace in Louisiana -- we could not only see the old wagon trail, we were walking on it. Such an experience.

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    1. You can almost see and hear the long gone travelers when you're walking along the trace. :-)

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