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The Natchez Trace Parkway is a national parkway in the southeastern United States that commemorates the historic Natchez Trace and preserves sections of that original trail. Its central feature is a two-lane road that extends 444 miles (715 km) from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. Access to the parkway is Limited-access road, limited, with more than fifty access points in the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. The southern end of the route is in Natchez at its intersection with Liberty Road, and the northern end is northeast of Fairview, Tennessee, in the suburban community of Pasquo, Tennessee, Pasquo, at an intersection with Tennessee State Route 100. In addition to Natchez and Nashville, larger cities along the route include Jackson, Mississippi, Jackson and Tupelo, Mississippi, Tupelo, Mississippi, and Florence, Alabama.''The National Parks: Index 2001-2003''. Washington: United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the InteriorNational Park Service
Natchez Trace Parkway Fact Sheet
February 25, 2010
By the time of European exploration and settlement, the route had become well known and established as the fastest means of communication between the Cumberland Plateau, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico settlements of Pensacola, Florida, Pensacola, Mobile, Alabama, Mobile, and New Orleans. In the early post-American Revolutionary War period of America's (south) westward expansion, the Trace was the return route for American flat-boat commerce between the territories of the upper and lower Ohio River, Ohio, Tennessee River, Tennessee, and Cumberland River valleys. The Americans constructed flat-boats, loaded their commerce therein, and drifted upon those rivers, one-way south-southwestward to New Orleans, Louisiana. They would then sell their goods (including the salvageable logs of the flat-boats and including enslaved people), and return home via the Trace (for the middle section of their return trip), to as far away as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Improved communications (steam boats, stagecoach lines, and Rail transport, railroads) and the development of ports along the rivers named above (e.g., Natchez; Memphis, Tennessee; Paducah, Kentucky; Nashville, Tennessee; and Louisville, Kentucky) made the route obsolete as a means of passenger and freight commerce. As a result, no major population centers were born or developed along the Trace, because of its alignment, between its termini Nashville and Natchez. The two cities of note, near or on the Trace's alignment (Jackson, Mississippi and Tupelo, Mississippi), developed only as a result of their alignment along axes of communication different from the Trace.
Thus the Trace and its alignment are today almost entirely undeveloped and unspoiled along its whole route. Many sections of the original footpath are visible today for observing and hiking the Parkway's right-of-way.
The Natchez Trace Trail, Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail includes five sections of hiking and horse riding trails.
Construction of the Parkway was begun by the federal government in the 1930s. The development of the modern roadway was one of the many projects of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. The road was the proposal of United States House of Representatives, U.S. Congressman T. Jeff Busby of Mississippi, who proposed it as a way to give tribute to the original Natchez Trace. Inspired by the proposal, the Daughters of the American Revolution began planting markers and monuments along the Trace. In 1934, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration ordered a survey. President Roosevelt signed the legislation to create the parkway on May 18, 1938. Construction on the Parkway began in 1939, and the route was to be overseen by the National Park Service. Its length includes more than 45,000 acres (182 km2) and the towering Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge in Williamson County, Tennessee, completed in 1994 and one of only two post-tensioned, segmental concrete arch bridges in the world.
The Emergency Appropriations Act of June 19, 1934, allocated initial construction funds and established it as a parkway under National Park Service by the act of May 18, 1938.
For many years in the later 20th century, most of the trace had been complete, but, owing to a lack of funds, two gaps remained. One, a several-mile-long bypass of Jackson, Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi. These final two segments, between Interstate 55 and Interstate 20 (in Ridgeland, Mississippi, Ridgeland and Clinton, Mississippi, respectively); and between Liberty Road in the city of Natchez, Mississippi and U.S. Highway 61 near Washington, Mississippi, were finally completed and opened on May 21, 2005.
In 2013 a new law required the National Park Service (NPS) to convey about 67 acres of property in the Natchez Trace Parkway to the State of Mississippi. It also adjusted the boundaries of the parkway to include 10 additional acres. The two pieces of land in question originally belonged to Mississippi and were donated to the National Park Service when the NPS was trying to determine where to end the Natchez Trace Parkway.
There are numerous historical sites on the Parkway, including the Meriwether Lewis Museum, the refurbished Mount Locust stand
Historic French Camp, MS
and the Mississippi Craft Center in Ridgeland, Mississippi, which focuses on promoting Mississippi's native art. Between the Parkway and Old Port Gibson Road is the ghost town of Rocky Springs that thrived in the late 19th century. The old Rocky Springs Methodist Church, the cemetery, and several building sites still exist and are accessible from the Parkway. Cypress Swamp is located at Mile Post 122. There are also several cascading waterfalls to view; for access, some require a bit of hiking from the parkway. Besides, parts of the Natchez Trace Trail, original trail are still accessible. The history of the Natchez Trace, including the Parkway, is summarized at the Natchez Trace Visitor Center in Tupelo, Mississippi. Emerald Mound, the second largest Native American platform mound, ceremonial mound in the United States, is located just west of the Trace and north of Highway 61 near Natchez. It offers a unique look at the ingenuity and industry of native culture. Two smaller mounds rise from the top of the main mound and rise above treetops offering a wide view. Travelers can reach Emerald Mound with a five-minute detour from the main trace highway. Emerald Mound measures by at the base and is in height. The mound was built by depositing earth along the sides of a natural hill, thus reshaping it and creating an enormous artificial plateau. The Ackia Battleground National Monument (established August 27, 1935 and now called Chickasaw Village) and Meriwether Lewis Park (proclaimed as Meriwether Lewis National Monument February 6, 1925 and transferred from the United States Department of War, War Department August 10, 1933) were added to the parkway by the act of August 10, 1961.
File:Natchez Trace Parkway bridge.jpg, Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge over SR 96 in Tennessee
File:Biketrip2005 0038a.jpg, Rocky Springs Methodist Church
File:biketrip2005 0036a.jpg, Rocky Springs Cemetery
File:biketrip2005 0044a.jpg, Cypress Swamp
File:biketrip2005 0070.jpg, Scenic waterfall
File:Meriwether Lewis National Monument and Gravesite.jpg, Meriwether Lewis National Monument and gravesite
File:Mount Locust 537.jpg, Mount Locust
Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge
* {{authority control All-American Roads Natchez Trace United States federal parkways Historic American Engineering Record in Mississippi National Park Service areas in Alabama National Park Service areas in Tennessee National Park Service areas in Mississippi Civilian Conservation Corps in Tennessee Civilian Conservation Corps in Mississippi Civilian Conservation Corps in Alabama Protected areas of Adams County, Mississippi Protected areas of Davidson County, Tennessee Protected areas of Lee County, Mississippi Protected areas of Hinds County, Mississippi Tupelo, Mississippi Protected areas of Madison County, Mississippi Protected areas of Attala County, Mississippi Protected areas of Chickasaw County, Mississippi Protected areas of Choctaw County, Mississippi Protected areas of Itawamba County, Mississippi Protected areas of Jefferson County, Mississippi Protected areas of Pontotoc County, Mississippi Protected areas of Tishomingo County, Mississippi Protected areas of Colbert County, Alabama Protected areas of Wayne County, Tennessee Protected areas of Lewis County, Tennessee Protected areas of Lawrence County, Tennessee Protected areas of Williamson County, Tennessee Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area
Natchez Trace Parkway Fact Sheet
February 25, 2010
Maintenance
The road is maintained by the National Park Service and has been designated an National Scenic Byway, All-American Road. Commercial traffic is prohibited along the entire route, and the speed limit is , except north of Leiper's Fork, Tennessee, and Ridgeland, Mississippi, where the speed limit is reduced to . The total area of the Parkway is , of which are federal, and are non-federal. The Parkway is headquartered in Tupelo and has nine district offices: Leipers Fork, Tennessee, Leipers Fork, Meriwether Lewis, Cherokee, Tupelo, Dancy, Kosciusko, Ridgeland, Port Gibson, and Natchez. The Parkway also manages two battlefields: Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site and Tupelo National Battlefield.History
Footpath
The gentle sloping and curving alignment of the current route closely follows the original foot passage. Its design harkens back to the way the original interweaving trails aligned as an ancient salt-lick-to-grazing-pasture migratory route of the American bison and other game that moved between grazing the pastures of central and western Mississippi and the salt and other mineral surface deposits of the Cumberland Plateau. The route generally traverses the tops of the low hills and ridges of the drainage basin, watershed divides from northeast to southwest. Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans, following the "traces" of bison and other game, further improved this walking trail for foot-borne commerce between major villages located in central Mississippi and middle Tennessee. The route is locally circuitous; however, by traversing this route the bison, and later humans, avoided the endless, energy-taxing climbing and descending of the many hills along the way. Also avoided was the danger to a herd (or groups of human travelers) of being caught en-masse at the bottom of a hollow or valley if attacked by predators. The nature of the route, to this day, affords good all-around visibility for those who travel it. At all times the road is on the high ground of the ridge dividing the watersheds and provides a view to either see or catch the scent of danger, from a distance great enough to afford the time to flee to safety, if necessary.
By the time of European exploration and settlement, the route had become well known and established as the fastest means of communication between the Cumberland Plateau, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico settlements of Pensacola, Florida, Pensacola, Mobile, Alabama, Mobile, and New Orleans. In the early post-American Revolutionary War period of America's (south) westward expansion, the Trace was the return route for American flat-boat commerce between the territories of the upper and lower Ohio River, Ohio, Tennessee River, Tennessee, and Cumberland River valleys. The Americans constructed flat-boats, loaded their commerce therein, and drifted upon those rivers, one-way south-southwestward to New Orleans, Louisiana. They would then sell their goods (including the salvageable logs of the flat-boats and including enslaved people), and return home via the Trace (for the middle section of their return trip), to as far away as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Improved communications (steam boats, stagecoach lines, and Rail transport, railroads) and the development of ports along the rivers named above (e.g., Natchez; Memphis, Tennessee; Paducah, Kentucky; Nashville, Tennessee; and Louisville, Kentucky) made the route obsolete as a means of passenger and freight commerce. As a result, no major population centers were born or developed along the Trace, because of its alignment, between its termini Nashville and Natchez. The two cities of note, near or on the Trace's alignment (Jackson, Mississippi and Tupelo, Mississippi), developed only as a result of their alignment along axes of communication different from the Trace.
Thus the Trace and its alignment are today almost entirely undeveloped and unspoiled along its whole route. Many sections of the original footpath are visible today for observing and hiking the Parkway's right-of-way.
The Natchez Trace Trail, Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail includes five sections of hiking and horse riding trails.
Civilian Conservation Corps
Construction of the Parkway was begun by the federal government in the 1930s. The development of the modern roadway was one of the many projects of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. The road was the proposal of United States House of Representatives, U.S. Congressman T. Jeff Busby of Mississippi, who proposed it as a way to give tribute to the original Natchez Trace. Inspired by the proposal, the Daughters of the American Revolution began planting markers and monuments along the Trace. In 1934, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration ordered a survey. President Roosevelt signed the legislation to create the parkway on May 18, 1938. Construction on the Parkway began in 1939, and the route was to be overseen by the National Park Service. Its length includes more than 45,000 acres (182 km2) and the towering Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge in Williamson County, Tennessee, completed in 1994 and one of only two post-tensioned, segmental concrete arch bridges in the world.
The Emergency Appropriations Act of June 19, 1934, allocated initial construction funds and established it as a parkway under National Park Service by the act of May 18, 1938.
Gaps and completion
For many years in the later 20th century, most of the trace had been complete, but, owing to a lack of funds, two gaps remained. One, a several-mile-long bypass of Jackson, Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi. These final two segments, between Interstate 55 and Interstate 20 (in Ridgeland, Mississippi, Ridgeland and Clinton, Mississippi, respectively); and between Liberty Road in the city of Natchez, Mississippi and U.S. Highway 61 near Washington, Mississippi, were finally completed and opened on May 21, 2005.
In 2013 a new law required the National Park Service (NPS) to convey about 67 acres of property in the Natchez Trace Parkway to the State of Mississippi. It also adjusted the boundaries of the parkway to include 10 additional acres. The two pieces of land in question originally belonged to Mississippi and were donated to the National Park Service when the NPS was trying to determine where to end the Natchez Trace Parkway.
Historical sites
There are numerous historical sites on the Parkway, including the Meriwether Lewis Museum, the refurbished Mount Locust standHistoric French Camp, MS
and the Mississippi Craft Center in Ridgeland, Mississippi, which focuses on promoting Mississippi's native art. Between the Parkway and Old Port Gibson Road is the ghost town of Rocky Springs that thrived in the late 19th century. The old Rocky Springs Methodist Church, the cemetery, and several building sites still exist and are accessible from the Parkway. Cypress Swamp is located at Mile Post 122. There are also several cascading waterfalls to view; for access, some require a bit of hiking from the parkway. Besides, parts of the Natchez Trace Trail, original trail are still accessible. The history of the Natchez Trace, including the Parkway, is summarized at the Natchez Trace Visitor Center in Tupelo, Mississippi. Emerald Mound, the second largest Native American platform mound, ceremonial mound in the United States, is located just west of the Trace and north of Highway 61 near Natchez. It offers a unique look at the ingenuity and industry of native culture. Two smaller mounds rise from the top of the main mound and rise above treetops offering a wide view. Travelers can reach Emerald Mound with a five-minute detour from the main trace highway. Emerald Mound measures by at the base and is in height. The mound was built by depositing earth along the sides of a natural hill, thus reshaping it and creating an enormous artificial plateau. The Ackia Battleground National Monument (established August 27, 1935 and now called Chickasaw Village) and Meriwether Lewis Park (proclaimed as Meriwether Lewis National Monument February 6, 1925 and transferred from the United States Department of War, War Department August 10, 1933) were added to the parkway by the act of August 10, 1961.
Parkway highlights
Highlights include:Natchez to Jackson
*Milepost 10.3 Emerald Mound *15.5 Mount Locust *41.5 Sunken Trace *54.8 Rocky Springs, Mississippi, Abandoned Town of Rocky SpringsJackson to Tupelo
*Milepost 105.6 Ross Barnett Reservoir Overlook *107.9 West Florida Boundary *122.0 Cypress Swamp *203.5 Pigeon Roost, Mississippi, Historic settlement of Pigeon Roost *232.4 Bynum Mound and Village Site, Bynum Mounds *261.8 Chickasaw Village SiteTupelo to Tennessee state line
*Milepost 266 Natchez Trace Parkway Visitor Center *269.4 Old Trace *286.7 Pharr Mounds *327.3 Colbert Ferry, also site #12 on the North Alabama Birding Trail *330.2 Rock Spring Nature Trail, also site #10 on the North Alabama Birding TrailTennessee
*Milepost 385.9 Meriwether Lewis Monument and Grave Site *391.9 Fall Hallow Trail *401.4 Tobacco Farm and Old Trace Drive *404.7 Trail to Jackson Falls and Baker Bluff Overlook *438 Bridge at Birdsong HollowExit list
Mileage based on physical mileposts along the parkway.Gallery
See also
*Blue Ridge Parkway *Loveless CafeReferences
External links
* * * *Federal Highway Administration's photo of thNatchez Trace Parkway Bridge
* {{authority control All-American Roads Natchez Trace United States federal parkways Historic American Engineering Record in Mississippi National Park Service areas in Alabama National Park Service areas in Tennessee National Park Service areas in Mississippi Civilian Conservation Corps in Tennessee Civilian Conservation Corps in Mississippi Civilian Conservation Corps in Alabama Protected areas of Adams County, Mississippi Protected areas of Davidson County, Tennessee Protected areas of Lee County, Mississippi Protected areas of Hinds County, Mississippi Tupelo, Mississippi Protected areas of Madison County, Mississippi Protected areas of Attala County, Mississippi Protected areas of Chickasaw County, Mississippi Protected areas of Choctaw County, Mississippi Protected areas of Itawamba County, Mississippi Protected areas of Jefferson County, Mississippi Protected areas of Pontotoc County, Mississippi Protected areas of Tishomingo County, Mississippi Protected areas of Colbert County, Alabama Protected areas of Wayne County, Tennessee Protected areas of Lewis County, Tennessee Protected areas of Lawrence County, Tennessee Protected areas of Williamson County, Tennessee Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area