As you can tell from the above titles this was a fast trip across three states. Our first stop was on the border at Lake Eufaula, Alabama at an Army Corp of Engineers CG. These campgrounds are such a great bargain with electricity, water and nice facilities at reasonable rates, especially if you have a Golden Age Passport. We love them and try to stay in them as often as possible. It was only a one night stand as we scooted west below the national cold line. Our next objective was another Corp CG just west of Montgomery trying to travel during better weather moments and checking ahead for flooded areas to avoid. It all means we didn’t stop for site seeing or photographing much of anything. We saw on our maps that there was a scenic byway along highway 80 between Montgomery and Selma. We were aware of the historical significance of this route to the Civil Rights Movement in America and we felt it appropriate to travel it during another pivotal time in our country’s evolution. I’m sorry to say that we did not find this highway very scenic; in fact the economic hard times became very apparent to us as we passed by the shopping malls and industrial parks. Tens of thousands of square feet of commercial and industrial space closed and boarded up. Churches, homes, restaurants and autos all abandoned - an economic battleground here in the heart of our beleaguered country. We took only three days to cross this state and that was really fast for this duo! Then we were in Mississippi and barreling westward to The Natchez Trace National Parkway as our singular destination in this State. We have been in these southern states before and found them somewhat sad after the hurricane disasters of the past few years, plus traveling in this region in the winter is definitely not pretty. We started out looking for a Forest Service CG in the Bienville National Forest but sorta got lost on back roads in flooded areas. Our GPS (affectionately known as ‘Gypsy’) tried to take us on the shortest route which ended up being very interesting as some of the bridges we crossed over were narrow and kinda rickety. We made it to the CG only to find it closed! None of our online or printed information informed us of that status. Oh well, flexibility is our mantra. We checked our varied resources and found Roosevelt State Park east of Jackson just a few miles down the road and settled into the mist.
Next day we were on the Natchez National Parkway and out of the urban or flooded environments – wahoo! The day was somewhat foggy but it just added a soft, mystical touch to this gentle, tree-lined road. Long used by man and animals to travel back and forth across Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee this 445-mile route has a long and convoluted history dating back some 10,000 years. Indians had been following this animal trail through forests, lowlands and swamps for generations by the time the French and Spanish trappers and traders arrived. They too followed the Indian trail as did the later colonists and settlers. By 1810, as the area became more settled, the farmers floated their produce down the Mississippi River to Natchez and points south only to sell their flatboats for lumber and walk back home via the Trace.
This is soft loess soil in some places so the erosion can be quite evident. We stopped at one such spot to walk the deep eroded path of the original trace.
Several places along the way were blessed with fresh water springs so that primitive accommodations, known as stands, sprang up to provision the travelers and provide a bit of safety from the robbers and disease-carrying insects. Small towns and farming communities developed and it became the most traveled road in the southeast. In 1812 steamboats began regular stops along the rivers providing a faster and safer mode of travel. Beginning in the 1930’s the Parkway was developed to preserve and protect the historic significance and scenic portions. In 1995 it was designated an All-American Road through the National Scenic Byways Program of the National Park Service. Today it offers an unhurried route from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS. This sudden change from freeway frenzy to peaceful passageway was so sweet we felt we could sense that slower pace back in the mists of history.
Rocky Springs was one of those ‘stands’ that developed along the Trace then became a village. It met its demise due to poor agricultural practices that encouraged the erosion of the soft Loess hillsides, a yellow fever epidemic in 1878, a Boll Weevil invasion and the drying up of the spring by the 1930’s. However, it became apparent that there is the continuation of life in this place when one looks about at the lushness of the ferns and fungus.
Here stands a well loved Methodist Church, the only building left to attest to the existence of a small piece of America’s past. Built in 1837 and maintained by its congregation through the decades it had a sturdy quietude and simplicity that made us hope that it will stand and nurture its people for another 170 years.
We continued our trek down the Trace enjoying the quiet forest before heading southward to the interesting city of Natchez, MS. It is the oldest city in Mississippi with history dating back to the late1700’s. It is a quaint little city with blocks of interesting architecture and some of the largest, most beautiful old live oak trees we had ever seen.
Just walking around town was fun but we were out to visit the Natchez National Historical Park which right now consists of two locations: the home of William Johnson, “Barber of Natchez” and Melrose, “A Cotton Kingdom Estate” - examples of the social extremes of Natchez in the in1800’s. There were several unique aspects to William Johnson: he was born the son of a mulatto mother in 1809, emancipated at age eleven by his white father, educated in reading and writing, trained as a barber by a free, black named James Miller, married a free woman of color, raised 10 children in his home on State Street, succeeded as a businessman with three barber shops and a bath house, owned a number of slaves, but most interestingly, he was an extraordinary diarist. He chronicled his life over 16 years from 1835 to his death in 1851 leaving lively tales of his family’s daily life and the town’s happenings. He was a keen observer and his entries reflect not only his own affairs and activities but anecdotes of the parades, fires, political rallies and natural disasters of the bustling community around him. The family preserved his papers and diaries for decades until Louisiana State University published the diaries in 1951. These personal papers provide a rare glimpse into the heyday of the cotton kingdom and the life of a free person of color through his own words.
The house he built in 1841 on his mother-in-law’s property was a three story brick duplex with a rental on one side and his living quarters and shop on the other. There is a two-story brick dependency behind the house which probably contained the kitchen and servants quarters. The National Park Service purchased the site in 1990, did extensive research into the construction and original finishes as a guide to the restoration of the structure and completed the home with many of the Johnson family’s original furnishings.
In contrast to the middle class, downtown abode of Johnson is the country, Cotton Kingdom Estate of Melrose – palatial home of the John McMurran Family. A very successful lawyer, McMurran purchased 133 acres just outside of Natchez in 1841 and over the next eight years with a combination of free and slave labor constructed the Greek Revival style mansion and outbuildings. Built on the highest point of the land near the center of the property where breezes could cool the entire house by flowing through the west-facing entrance the main house features a full-height front entry with four massive Doric brick columns, a two-story colonnaded back porch which spans the length of the house and a decorative roof deck that tops the house’s hipped roof.
The home was furnished with “all that fine taste and purse” could provide. Carved ionic columns flanked oak-grained pocket doors connecting two parlors and a personal library. Ornate Rococo furniture, silken draperies, hand painted wall paper, Venetian blinds and marble-topped tables filled the home. Over the dining room table hung a magnificent mahogany “punkah” for shooing flies away from the food. Such exhibition of wealth was expected of the Planters of the Cotton Kingdom.
The second floor was the main space for the day to day living of the family and was less richly furnished. Here one can see the well worn cypress plank floors which were not covered by the ornate canvas linoleum and rich rugs of the first floor. Here too are classic examples of the finely crafted wardrobes and beds, many made by local artisans in Natchez.
John and Mary Louisa McMurran decided to sell Melrose and move into one of their other five properties – an adjacent estate called Woodlands. They sold Melrose to Elizabeth and George Malin Davis in 1865 whose descendents kept the property for 111 years until it was sold to Natchez residents John and Betty Callon in1976. The NPS acquired Melrose in 1990 opening it to the public as one of the most completely preserved antebellum estates in Natchez.
Our next adventure into the history of the South took us across the state line and the Mississippi River into Louisiana and a remarkable experience at Frogmore Farms. An 1800 acre living history museum and working cotton plantation, Frogmore is the loving passion and profession of George “Buddy” and Lynette Tanner. We called to see if any tours were available in this off season and were delighted to learn that we would be the guests of Lynette Tanner herself. I must say that made us feel pretty special!
What a wealth of information this interesting Lady turned out to be. She has spent untold hours researching plantation life, cotton production and ginning history. She and Buddy have traveled the state finding, moving and preserving ‘dependencies’ (an interesting word that succinctly describes all the various outbuildings that were part of these early plantations) from the era of the early cotton kings. Frogmore now contains authentically furnished slave cabins dating to 1810, a slave church, a rare steam-powered gin and many other buildings containing a veritable museum of authentic furnishings and implements.
Church
Store
Gin & Grist Mill Building
Gin
Grist Mill
Barn
Slave Cabins
Dog-Trot Cabin
Weaving Cabin
Lynette shared so much information with us: from her research and the written histories she has read, to the stories told by people who lived out their entire lives at Frogmore, to the educational videos she and her husband have produced. We learned about the modern methods of a computerized cotton plantation and gin plus the many products made from cotton seeds. They have made these captured moments into the past and the present come very much alive for us and have imbued their life’s work with a commitment and passion rarely see in today’s harried and hurried world. We urge you to visit them in person if you can or to check out their website.
We hurried to the Paragon Casino and Resort in Marksville for a nice overnight stay and crab leg buffet. No, we won nothing, lost little and left there for our next stop beside the waters at Toledo Bend Reservoir on the Louisiana/Texas border. There we hunkered down for about five days to wait out rainstorms and stay off the holiday highway hassle! We trekked into Texas next, so we will share the start of the new year and next journey then.
