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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
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NATCHEZ TRACE PARKWAY
Alabama-Mississippi-Tennessee
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Location: Traverses the States of Mississippi, Alabama,
and Tennessee, from Natchez to Nashville; address, 2680 Natchez Trace
Parkway, Tupelo, MS 38804-9715.
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Early inland explorers and settlers in the
Southeastern part of the present United States discovered a network of
animal trails and Indian paths that formed a wilderness road between
present Natchez and Nashville. During the 18th century, Frenchmen,
Englishmen, Spaniards, and Americans used the road. French explorers,
missionaries, soldiers, and traders called it a "trace" a French word
for "trail." Shortly after arriving at the gulf coast in 1699, the
French first explored the trace area; in 1716, they established Fort
Rosalie at the site of Natchez. In 1763, the French ceded the region to
the English, who occupied it until 1779. The English who used the trace
mainly for the purpose of trading with the Natchez, Choctaw, and
Chickasaw tribes, called it the "Path to the Choctaw Nation."
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Scenic Natchez Trace Parkway
generally follows the route of the old Natchez Trace. Indians,
Spaniards, Frenchmen, Englishmen, and Americans used the trace. For
several centuries, it was an important trade route and emigrant road in
the old Southwest. |
At the end of the War for Independence, in 1783,
Spain claimed the territory between the Mississippi and Chattahoochee
Rivers, as far north as Memphis, as a reward for her wartime aid to the
colonies. This territory included Natchez, at the southern end of the
trace, which remained under Spanish control until it passed to the
United States in 1798, though in the interim the population had remained
predominantly English-speaking. The United States immediately organized
the Mississippi Territory. At the northern end of the trace, beginning
about 1780, American settlers were populating Nashville. Kentucky
traders and other frontiersmen rafted their goods downriver to Natchez
or New Orleans, but used the tracewhich they sometimes called the
Chickasaw Tracereturning home. Frequently, they brought back
Spanish silver. By 1800, about 1,000 made the trip each year, and mail
service was initiated along the trace.
From 1800 to 1820, the trace was the most traveled
road in the old Southwest. Over it passed a variety of colorful frontier
characters: Missionaries, boatmen, Indian hunting parties, mounted
postmen, and U.S. soldiers. A vital economic and social artery, it bound
the old Southwest to the rest of the Nation. It was used for frontier
defense in the "cold war" with Spain, until she abandoned all claims to
Florida in 1819, and became a valuable military and post road. At the
beginning of the War of 1812, between the United States and England,
Andrew Jackson and his Tennessee Militia used it to travel to Natchez
and after the war returned over it in triumph.
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Natchez Trace Parkway. |
By 1820, the trace was no longer needed for frontier
defense. Rivalries with Spain and England had ended, and the Indians
were being forced westward. The new steamboat traffic robbed the trace
of its trade. As Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee became more
populous, sections were abandoned and others incorporated into local
road systems. The trace lost its frontier character.
The Natchez Trace Parkway is still under construction
and follows roughlycrossing, recrossing, and at times
parallelingthe route of the old Natchez Trace. When completed, it
will make possible a leisurely 450-mile drive through a protected zone
of forest, meadow, and field that is rich in prehistoric and historic
associations. Evidences of the aboriginal Indian inhabitants abound
along the trace. Markers indicate historic sites, and interpretive
exhibits point out their significance. The main visitor center is at
Tupelo, Miss.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/explorers-settlers/sitea1.htm
Last Updated: 22-Mar-2005
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