Natchez Trace Parkway II (2/17/2022)

Thursday, February 17, 2022 (continued)

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 had a detour due to road resurfacing, and missed the part of the Natchez Trace Parkway that entered into Alabama.

Site of Colbert Ferry, operated 1800-1819 by George Colbert
who was half-Scot and half-Chickasaw; it is said he charged
Major General Andrew Jackson $75,000 to ferry his Teene
 Tennessee Army across the river, during the War of 1812

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)

Te-lah-nay was part of the Yuchi Nation that lived here. As a girl she was sent to Indian Territory of Oklahoma as part of the Trail of Tears. However, she escaped to go home and traveled alone over 600 miles, taking five years. A book has been written of her journey: If the Legends Fade (2000) by Tom Hendrix.

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

The wall, if stretched out straight, would be 1.25 miles long;
it even leaves space for trees to grow; most of the stones
are from a local quarry, but some are brought by
visitors, including from foreign countries 

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

This is one of the last pieces of our Lewis & Clark Trail trip, to see the burial site of Captain Meriwether Lewis. He died under mysterious circumstances. At the time he was the Governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory and was living in St Louis. Lewis left in September 1809 to travel to Washington, DC to protest the denial of payment vouchers by the War Department. He planned to travel by boat down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, and then by ship to DC. However, due to threat of war with Britain, he decided to travel across land. On October 10, 1809, Lewis stopped at the Grinder stand/inn. During the night, Mrs Grinder heard two shots and ran out to find Lewis bleeding from gunshot wounds, and he was dead by morning. After much investigation and speculation, it was determined to be a suicide. Fortunately, the Corps of Discovery journals Lewis was carrying were saved and delivered to Washington, DC.

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

A few miles more and we arrived at the northern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway, and were headed to Nashville, TN.

Next: Andrew Jackson's Hermitage.