The Old Natchez Trace

This roadside pull over on the Natchez National Park at approximately mile post 222 shows some of the original post road as it was.  Obviously it has been cleared so you and I can walk along it.




Originally it was used by the Indians to travel from the lower Louisiana delta area up to the Nashville, TN area and farther north.

 These pictures, as good as they are, do not show how dense the forest and underbrush can be. 

 Maintaining this 500 mile wilderness road in the early 1800's was a difficult if not hopeless task.  Consider for an instance that those old travellers had to endure insects, snakes, and other animals along with the heat and humidity that at times in unrelenting.  Those of us who endured Viet-Nam would understand what they went through.




As you look down the trace notice how it is sunken, and also the large trees growing on the edge of the ten foot wide trench or roadway that is cleared today.

The sunken part was caused by the thousands of travelers, the rain that made passage next to impossible in some sections.