Back on the Natchez Trace Parkway, heading north. Today we saw a fawn, an eagle sitting in the middle of a meadow with a ranger truck stopped on the shoulder, and turkeys, never mind black vultures and crows.
We walked a short section of the Old Trace... |
...to pay our respects to the unknown Confederate soldiers, likely young boys caught up in the crisis |
Okay, so someone decorated this grave with the the battle flag, the old Mississippi state flag, and the first flag of the Confederate States of America |
Pharr Mounds with eight mounds scattered over the largest archaeological site in Mississippi; the site was used from 100-1200 CE during the Late Woodland Period |
We shall cross the Tennessee River for free, on the John Coffee Memorial Bridge that at 0.8 miles is the longest bridge on the Natchez Trace Parkway |
Wichahpi/Like the Stars Commemorative Stone Wall (1983-2017, by Tom Hendrix, to honor his great-great-grandmother, Te-lah-nay) (KSS) |
The stone wall curves, twists, and turns, much like the journey of Te-lah-nay, and is the longest unmortared wall in the country; at points the walls appear five feet wide |
Lunch was at a local gas station/convenience store in Collinwood, TN: a pre-made cheeseburger and something like Tater Tots in which a bit of cheese was injected |
A sign indicates people have been using their foot to flush the toilet |
An overgrown "viewpoint" along a 2.5 mile section of the original Natchez Road route |
Natchez Road has moss growing on it! |
The road is also much hillier and curvier than the parkway |
Metal Ford was where the Old Trace crossed the Buffalo River, so named because it reminded travelers of stone-surfaced or "metaled" roads of the day |
A stone outcrop near the Buffalo River (KSS) |
Everything is covered with moss! (KSS) |
A section of the Old Trace near the Meriwether Lewis Site |
The Meriwether Lewis Monument (1848) marks the burial site of the essential leader of the Lewis & Clark/Corps of Discovery Expedition |
A reproduction stand "stands in" for the Grinder House |
Fall Hollow Falls |
Tobacco barn of the 1900s |
Baker Bluff Overlook is supposed to have the best scenic view along the parkway, but today was cloudy and rainy as we raced ahead of a storm threatening tornados |
Gordon House (1817-1818) of ferry operator John Gordon, whose ferry crossed the Duck River |
1812 Monument memorializes the volunteer soldiers who traveled the Natchez Trace |
Birdsong Hollow Bridge (1994) is double-arch segmental bridge, the first of its kind, that received the Presidential Award for Design Excellence in 1995 |
The bridge is 155 feet above Birdsong Hollow and a third of a mile long, and was designed to have minimum impact on the valley below |
Next: Andrew Jackson's Hermitage.
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