[mojo]

The Natchez Trace

I thought I would start a thread about this park. It's one I've been on and had the forethought to actually take pictures. The camera is substandard but still it will be good enough to see the images. I'm not a photographer so bare in mind the quality will be lacking in that respect.

For a little history on this park, it goes back to the days before the United States was settled as a nation. For a time, there were the original 13 colonies in the North, with Georgia being a penal location and there were the French and Spanish settlements in the south along the Coast. But there was nothing really connecting the two together. The only way to go from the northern colonies to the southern settlements was either by canoe along the Mississippi River, by sea, or over land. Part of this involved traveling through Indian held country where the traveler was at serious risk as it was pretty much a foot trail that war parties used to raid other tribes. Anything found along the trail was fair game for raids.

Over time and use, the trail expanded into a dirt road of sorts. Connecting the north and the south of the nation. After the Eastern part of the nation begins to be settled, goods travel the Mississippi river by barge from north to south, the party then sells the goods and the barge and then travels The Natchez Trace back north to home.

Later during the Civil War period the Trace is used for troop movements and mail. This follows with people using the Trace to go west during the Westward expansion.

This is a sort of photo record I will be posting of this vacation trip along with explanations along the way of what you are seeing in the images. Mostly people will not be seen. I'll photoedit the images as I go, as most of them are wallpaper sized.

The park is unusual in that it is a long park. It is both a National Park as well as a state park for Mississippi and Tennessee. It takes several days to travel through the complete park and we didn't do it all. Still there will be enough photos here for you to get an idea by seeing them as to what's there.

Given the forum's participation I expect it will be interesting to say the least.

[SEO]

Very good. I like this!

[mojo]

Emerald Mound

This is the 2^nd largest Indian mound in the United States. The images shown here do not really capture the wonder of first seeing it from below at ground level. For lack of a better way to say it, there is a certain awe feeling to looking up at this and knowing it was man made without any power machines.

[Alexa]

It's a great example for cultural tourism. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to travel virtually online, too!

[mojo]

Some of the things I've forgotten to mention about the park, is for one, it goes into/through 3 states. Alabama has part of this park. Another is that some of it is undeveloped. Meaning there are no gas stations, no restaurants, or any stores for that matter within the park while other parts of it in the north do have a sort of gas station/convenience store about every 200 miles or so along the way within the park. 

There are also camping areas, about a day's drive apart scattered all along the way. So if you need anything you have to travel out of the park to get it in most of the areas. Camping along the way is how we did it, taking a tent, food and drink in an ice chest, and just enjoy the ride.

[MSL]

Meaning there are no gas stations, no restaurants, or any stores for that matter within the park...

 Maybe a good business niche idea.

Camping along the way is how we did it, taking a tent, food and drink in an ice chest, and just enjoy the ride.

 Then, probably it's a safe place? /No robbers, maniacs, etc.?/ Or you just took the risk? I just wonder, if there is a problem, how long does it take for a police car (or helicopter?) to arrive?
 And a last question: how about the wild nature? Did you spot some unusual or new for you plant, insect, other animals?
 And also, I'd like to express my gratitude for this topic, because it's something that's really informative for the people outside of the US. I can tell you what most of the foreigners (non-US people) can associate as geography about USA: New York /some of them think it's the capital, but it's not/, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Boston, Hawaii, Florida, Texas, Nevada, Yellowstone... Indians, WWE, Hollywood...Clinton, Obama, Trump, Sanders... Maybe this is around 80-90% of what they can say and what they know. I know more, of course, but not all. For example I learned about the Ozarks only a few months ago. And today I learned about this trace, thanks to you!

[mojo]

There is no business niche within the park. The government regulates this, depending on the state, not the federal government. This is why some areas have a gas station within the park and other states do not. Along the way are signs indicating a town and which road to take to go to it. In those towns for near all the history of the park, have developed stores for whatever the traveler needs.

Most of the wildlife is not dangerous. Meaning that if you leave them alone, they will stay away from you by natural fear of humans. Those that do not, are hunted down, killed or removed from the area to some other natural site where people aren't nearby.

This park is huge. There's no way to describe how large it is. You don't see many people along the way. You have the feeling you have it pretty much to yourself all along the way. One of the reasons it takes so long to travel the length of it is that the speed limit for vehicles is much slower than you could do on the interstate. 45 mph is about tops for the upper speed limit.

While the park is long, it is not that wide. Maybe 20 miles wide but 444 miles long. There are cities all along the outside of the park. Flights in would only take minutes from outside. Vehicles a little longer but still well within what most would consider acceptable times.

The Trace has had a long history in it's early days of being littered with robbers and thieves. So much so that it is no longer a problem. It was an area that was concentrated on. We encountered no issues whatever of this nature.

[mojo]

All along the park are various places of interest where there is just a small parking lot, a sign to explain what you are looking at, and whatever it is of interest. This is one such pull over.

[SEO]

And I want to add that it's very good that there (seems) aren't any vandals, who will destroy it or draw some graffiti on it!

I can't stop wonder what makes a person such a barbarian, who finds joy in destroying monuments, signs, lights, etc.

[mojo]

There are no cities in the park, no housing for people to stay at, no developments we would consider necessary for modern day life. If you stay in the park at night, you camp or sleep in your car. There is no convenient motel inside it. There are a few houses in it but not that you can stay at. They are museum showcases and are locked at the end of the day. Park rangers patrol the park at all times. You speed, one of them will write you a ticket. You trash the place, same thing.

There's not a lot of places to enter the park from. Maybe one every 20 or 30 miles apart. You go in and cause troubles, there are just a limited amount of places to leave and radio travels much faster than you. You do something stupid and it is seen, they'll be waiting on you when it comes time to leave.

Most campers are more ecology freaks than not. They are not going to trash the place.

[mojo]

I've so many images of Mount Locust that I am only going to show a few of them unless more are requested. This will have to be a multi post over at least two if not three posts. Many I have not shown you of the signs but I thought I would cover some of the signs first and then in the next post actually show you the images of the place.

[英语课]

Very interesting pictures! Thank you for letting us enjoy them!

[mojo]

In the foreground of the first image you see what is called a split rail fence. Basically, a tree is felled, it's split into the sizes you see and then laid out as seen. It was an easy way to build a fence without digging posts or making gates. Gates were made in a different manner which allowed someone to walk through with their hands full but the animals couldn't. The gates sort of looked like this -----> >------- with the spacing between them closer. A person could just turn sideways and slip between the >'s but the cows and horses could not make the turn to go through.

In the second image you see one of the park rangers who is station here at the Locust House Museum. He acts as a sort of guide as well as to keep an eye on things that they remain where they are.

Tomorrow I will show you the images of the inside and it will give you a clue as to the 'modern conveniences' of the time.  Blacksmithing was required to make nails. So much of the building you see was put together with very few nails and mostly joints were cut to help the wood stay in place.

[SEO]

Park rangers patrol the park at all times.

This explains almost all.

Thanks for the good description/explanation!

[SEO]

He acts as a sort of guide as well as to keep an eye on things that they remain where they are.

Perfect. A guide + a guard/policeman. Things stay in order, the park may save some money. Reasonable management.