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FORT The fort was an enclosure of stout logs set at an angle sloping inward. Crouched in a trench inside the wall, the Chickasaws shot at attackers through ground-level slits. The fort idea probably was suggested by the British to combat another European "import"... siege tactics. |
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SUMMER HOUSE Trader Adair wrote that the Chickasaws could erect a summer house in one day, using no tools but a hatchet and knife.. A cypress shingle roof, pine or cypress clapboard walls, and a covering of bark held on with lashed-on saplings made a shelter"... the side and gables of which are bullet-proof". |
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WINTER HOUSE The Chickasaws built a stout frame of logs and covered it with a layer of oak or hickory splints, six or seven inches of clay and a thick thatch of long grass. The entrance hall curving along the outside wall was low and narrow to impede winds and invading enemies. |
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WINTER WARMTH Each day, a fire was built on the floor to furnish heat through the night. The British trader, Adair, reported that "While the new fire is burning down, the house, for want of air, is full of heat and smoky darkness; and all this time a number of them lie on their broad bed places with their heads wrapped up". |
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WILD PLANTS
INDIANS USED Corn was the Chickasaws' staple food... but they found many uses for the native plants growing nearby. With signs along this trail, an Indian boy will tell you about some of their favorites. The trail will add about 15 minutes to your walk back to the parking lot. |
OLD TOWN OVERLOOK (Mile 263)
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LAKES ARE HOME A small lake, even manmade, will provide living space for numerous types of insects, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. It also furnishes a watering place for wildlife such as birds, raccoons, and other small game. |
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FISH Insects, algae, crayfish, and smaller fishes such as minnows make up the diet of the fish found in this lake. Bass, bream, and catfish are the game fish that may be caught here by the skillful angler. |
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OTHER LAKE
DWELLERS Turtles and snakes also inhabit a lake. Although many people dislike these lake dwellers, they are vital to the well-being of the lake. They consume sickly fish and keep other pond inhabitants such as frogs in check. |
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This monument marks a stage in the course of the Natchez Trace through Mississippi. Over this first high road came at a tide of the east population of the older southern states seeking homes in the southwest. After the treaty of Pomtotoc, October 26, 1832, between the American Government and the Chickasaw Indians came the settlers of the fair Chickasaw lands. Bienville fought the Battle of Agnia with the Chickasaw Indians near this spot May 26, 1736. Of the rage that repulsed him let it be recorded here they die well who die for faith and home and native land. |
| Presented to the city of Tupelo and the County of Lee by the Mississippi Society Daughters of the American Revolution November 19, 1914. |
OLD TRACE (Mile 270)
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OLD TRACE This eroded road which the trail follows for a short distance is a portion of the original Natchez Trace. Many years of foot, horse, and some wagon travel as well as nearly 200 years of rain have worn this Sunken Trace. |
DOGWOOD
VALLEY (Mile 276)
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DOGWOOD VALLEY Flowering dogwood is a common small tree throughout the eastern United States from Maine and Michigan south to Texas and Florida. Here the Natchez Trace passes through a small valley with an unusual stand of large dogwood trees. An easy 15 minute walk takes you along a sunken portion of the Old Trace and through a small wooded area named "Dogwood Valley". |
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DOGWOOD VALLEY From here you may look down into Dogwood Valley and see several of the larger and older dogwood as well as many young trees. Some of these larger dogwood are probably at least 100 years old and could be even older. |
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LOGGING ROAD You are walking along an old logging road built when the area was logged many years ago. Wagons hauling harvested trees to the mill compacted the ground and little vegetation has grown back |
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SWAMP CHESTNUT
OAK Oak is the largest group of hardwood trees, and more kinds of oak are found on the parkway than any other tree because of this variety, they have become adjusted to many habitats. Swamp Chestnut Oak, for instance, grows in bottom lands, swamps, and along streams. |
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DOGWOOD Dogwood usually grows under the shade of taller trees in rich, well-drained soils. It is one of the more common and widely distributed trees in the hardwood forests of the mid-Atlantic and Southern States, ranging in elevation from sea level to the summit of the Allegheny Mountains (4,800 ft.). |
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FLOWERS Dogwood and redbud are the first trees to flower in the spring. In April and May before any leaves have appeared. Four showy-white bracts, or modified leaves, surrounding the cluster of small greenish flowers appear profusely on the bare dogwood branches. |
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FRUIT Clusters of bright, shiny red, egg-shaped fruit, 1/2 inches in diameter and 30 to 40 in a head, appear in October. Although unpalatable to humans, they are eaten by squirrels and many birds, including wild turkey and bobwhite. |
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WOOD Slow-growing dogwood produces a very hard, heavy wood extremely resistant to shock. For this reason it was used in early days for mauls, mallets, and wedges and more recently for heads of golf sticks and chisel handles. |
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BARK Bark of young dogwood is smooth and dark reddish-brown or gray-colored. As the tree matures, the bark turns black and breaks up into small scaly blocks creating a "checkered pattern." |
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USES OF BARK Dogwood bark is aromatic and tastes bitter. Pioneers steeped the bark in whiskey, drinking this when they had "the shakes" and the "ague." The bark was used in the Confederacy during the Civil War when there was a shortage of quinine. |
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INDIAN USES Indians knew of the medicinal properties of dogwood bark and used it as a remedy for malaria. From the roots they derived a scarlet dye for coloring porcupine quills and bald eagle feathers. |
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RE-SPROUTED
DOGWOOD Some trees just will not give up. Both forks of this dogwood were bent down many years ago. Several branches sprouted upward and developed into the four trunks of the odd shaped tree. |
TWENTY MILE BOTTOM (Mile 279)
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TWENTY MILE
BOTTOM Twenty mile bottom, now cultivated, was typical of the many low areas along streams through which the Natchez Trace passed. In 1812 Reverend John Johnson stopped at Old Factors Stand, near this bottom, and wrote this account of bottomland travel: |
| "I have this day swam my horse 5 times, bridged one creek, forded several others, besides the swamp we had to wade through. At night we had a shower of rain, took up my usual lodging on the ground in company with several Indians". |
DONIVAN SLOUGH (Mile 286)
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DONIVAN SLOUGH This woodland trail takes you through a lowland where rich soil and abundant moisture support a variety of large, water-tolerant trees including tulip poplar, sycamore, and water oak. |
| Baldcypress thrive in the swampy backwaters of a "slue" or channel winding through the bottomland. A 20 minute walk lets you see these trees and the dramatic way the baldcypress grow only in the wet slough. |
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BLACK OAK Black Oak grows best in rich, well-drained soils and is usually not very abundant in areas with good soil because it does not compete well with other trees. This oak needs a lot of sunlight and is intolerant of shade. Look around and you will see that there are no small black oak. |
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SHAGBARK HICKORY Shagbark Hickory is a common bottom land tree east of the Mississippi River. Since there are no mature hickory trees nearby, the parent may have died and rotted away, having these small trees as silent testimony of its past presence. |
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TULIP POPLAR The tight-barked double tree is a Tulip Poplar or Yellow Poplar. It is the tallest hardwood tree in North America, growing 200 feet tall with a trunk up to 10 feet in diameter and clear of branches for the lower 80 to 100 feet. |
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COMMON SWEETLEAF On both sides of the trail are Common Sweetleaf, a small southern tree which grows best in moist, rich woods in dense shade. A yellow dye is made from the bark and semi-leathery leaves which often remain on the tree until the following spring. |
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BLACK WILLOW Black Willow is always close to water, whether as a shrub in dunes at Cape Hatteras or as a tree in swamps or bottom lands where it reaches its largest size. In moist situations the tree usually forks or the trunk will separate at the base. |
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RIVER BIRCH River Birch ranges far south of all other birches. Unlike northern species which prefer clear, cold, rushing water, this birch grows best beside slow, silt-laden river. The seeds need mud in order to germinate. Behind you in the slough are several young trees which started when there was little or no water. |
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BOTTOM LAND You are now leaving the slough and its direct influence and crossing a low land. During late winter when rains saturate the ground and the slough overflows its banks, standing water may cover much of this area. |
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CHRISTMAS FERN Evergreen Christmas Fern is an important part of the ground cover here that helps to hold the bank in place and slow down erosion. This is one of the few ferns that remain green in the winter when most other ferns turn brown and die back to the ground. |
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WOODLAND VOICES Heavily wooded areas such as this with nearby open fields and water provide homes for many kinds of birds. If you sit, close your eyes, and remain quiet for a few minutes, you may hear many woodland voices you had not noticed before. |
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YELLOW-BELLIED
SAPSUCKER A Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker drilled these rows of parallel holes in this tulip tree. A woodpecker, it drills holes in live trees and then returns later to feed on the sap and the insects attracted to the sap. |
PHARR MOUNDS (Mile 289)
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PHARR MOUNDS Pharr Mounds is the largest and most important archeological site in northern Mississippi. Eight large dome-shaped burial mounds are scattered over an area of 90 acres (100 football fields). These mounds were built and used about 1-1200 A D by a tribe of nomadic Indian hunters and gatherers who returned to this site many times to bury the dead with their possessions. |
| Near the time of Christ, probably
between 100 B C and A D 200, Indians
living in this area built burial mounds for the most important of their
dead. Anthropologists refer to them as people of the "Middle Woodland
Culture." What little we know about them must be deciphered from the
mounds, and from related sites such as nearby Byunum Mounds.
The builders of Pharr Mounds probably knew little about farming. It seems they lived almost entirely by hunting, fishing, and the gathering of wild nuts, seeds, and fruit. Although they traveled to hunt and trade, they probably remained at a village most of the year. In 1978, archaeologists uncovered here a village site occupied 400 years after the building of the mounds. |
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PHARR MOUNDS In 1966 archaeologists excavated four of the mounds in front of you. All appear to have been burial mounds, although few human bones were found. Artifacts recovered here indicate that the builders of Pharr Mounds participated in the "Hopewell Interaction Sphere," a culture type characterized by a ceremonial burial complex and a widespread trade network. Although centered in Ohio and Illinois, Hopewell influences have been discovered in many parts of the eastern United States. |
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BUILDING A BURIAL
MOUND In raising a single mound a large work force moved many thousands of cubic feet of earth entirely by hand, probably using baskets. The builders of Pharr Mounds must have had a strong social organization to accomplish projects of this magnitude. Workers first constructed a low platform of clay. On this foundation they prepared crematory basins, built log tombs, or dug graves. |
| With elaborate ceremony the bodies were either cremated or placed in graves or tombs. Objects which reflected the importance of the deceased were often placed near the bodies. A large dome-shaped mound was piled over the burials. Sometimes they placed cremations within the mound as it was built up. A final mantle of soil completed the mound. |
TENN - TOM WATERWAY (Mile 292)
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TENNESSEE -
TOMBIGBEE WATERWAY In the mid 1700's Sieur de Bienville, founder of Mobile, recommended to Louis XIV, a waterway connecting the Tennessee River with the Tombigbee River. Later American settlers also recognized the advantages of such a shortcut. Residents of Knox County, Tennessee (Knoxville) first approached Congress in 1810 with the proposal to connect the two rivers. |
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The first survey was made by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1817. Serious consideration was delayed for more than 100 years because of the expansion of railroads. |
| Construction of the Tennessee Tombigbee
Waterway was started in 1972 and completed in 1985.
The waterway provides shallow draft boats and barges operating in some
16,000 miles of other navigable inland waterways with access to the Gulf of
Mexico at Mobile, Alabama, 412 river miles to the south of the Bay Springs
Locks and Dam. The junction of the waterway with the Tennessee River is 47
miles north of the lock and dam. The locks on the waterway are standard
dimensions... 100 feet wide and 600 feet long. This length permits an
eight-barge tow (three wide and three long) with towboat to lock through
without breaking the tow.
The Bay Springs Lock and Dam has an 84 foot lift at normal pool (the water level above the lock and dam) elevation 414. A lick-through of average lift was approximately 42,000,000 gallons of water to fill, and fills or empties in about 12 - 14 minutes. Commodities shipped on the waterway include ores, chemicals, farm products, paper and pulp, minerals and primary metals, coal, and staples for manufacture and export. Water impoundments such as Bay Springs Lake above the lock and dam provide recreational opportunities and wildlife habitat. |
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JAMIE L WHITTEN
HISTORIC LANDMARK This parkway bridge is named in honor of United States Representative Jamie L Whitten who for years fought for funds in Congress to complete the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Tennessee - Tombigbee Waterway. His vision helped make possible this historic landmark, the intersection of two great avenues of transportation... one past, one present, and both for the future. |
| Jamie Whitten was responsible for reviving the Trace project and instrumental in securing continuous appropriations for construction of the parkway as a memorial to the original Old Trace. The Old Trace or trail, was the path through the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee Nations between Natchez and Mobile. After floating their trade goods to Natchez, thousands of Boatmen would walk home over the Natchez Trace. After 1820, when steam power made upriver travel easier, many portions of the Natchez Trace were abandoned. |
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RIVER, CANAL AND
CUT The Tennessee - Tombigbee Waterway has three main parts. The largest section from Demopolis, Alabama, north to Amory, Mississippi, utilizes the Tombigbee River but changes and shortens the existing channel with dams, locks, and short cuts. From Amory a canal section using a chain-of-lakes construction extends to the Bay Springs Lock and Dam. The final section cuts deeply through high ground to the Tennessee River. |
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CAVE SPRINGS (Mile 309)
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| SINK HOLE A Sink Hole is forming in the limestone which is the basic type of rock in this area. Carbon dioxide absorbed by rain-water as it falls forms a weak acid which dissolves the limestone as the water seeps along tissues and cracks. These fissures are gradually enlarged until the surface materials, topsoil, and leaf litter begin to stump into it. |
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