Long steel bridges joining Mississippi and Louisiana. Our hotel is visible on the ridge in this shot, but our room faced the other way!The name Natchez stems from the Native Americans who used to live there prior to being scattered by the French colonialists who established a settlement in the 1710's. Thereafter, its owners passed to the British, the Spanish, the Americans, the Confederates and the Americans again after the Civil War.
Remnant of Fort Rosalie in Natchez.Fortunately for Natchez, it capitulated to the Union Army during the Civil War, and was saved burning. Thus, the present city enjoys some glorious homesteads which predate the war. Confederate spirit survive in Natchez (as elsewhere) - confederate flags abound, and our private conversations with some locals would suggest that the Civil War hasn't yet ended.
This is a Swiss inspired house design right on the bluff in Natchez. It reminds us of a Queenslander contruction.
We have seen many decorated houses on this trip down the Mississippi, but this one in Natchez is possibly the most extreme.
Rocking chairs on front porches are the iconic image of the American deep south.In fact, it was really easy to meet people in Natchez, because they were so friendly and happy to talk to us, even before they realised we were total foreigners. Like many American cities, being a pedestrian seems to be a rare thing, but we did encounter quite a few people walking the Natchez riverside walk on top of the bluff. As we walked the streets there, and around the town, admiring the splendid buidlings, the few people we bumped into would invariably say "how y'all".
This is an unassuming house, but the sign dates it to 1796 attesting to effective maintenance and renovation with preservation of heritage. Numerous pre-civil war houses can be found in Natchez, just by walking around.
Gas light fittings such as this are very common on houses and buildings south of, say, Memphis. We assume their forebears were lanterns, and newer versions are electric with flickering bulbs.An internet search led us to a newspaper article about the Steampunk Cafe where we enjoyed cappucinos just like home. (It helps to learn the local lingo though.) The owner, Dub, told us a lot about how he studied coffee culture in Australia, New Zealand and Cyprus before coming up with the formula for his business. It seems to work, and is popular with the locals who filled the place up even on a Sunday morning. He also explained to us that the cafe was in a house built for newly emancipated slaves. Everyone in the cafe, hearing our accents, wanted to talk. Amazingly, their visitors' book showed they had another Sydney couple in only the previous day! Dub also told us of his plans to establish a bar nearby, in a disused and very rusty ex-speak-easy nearby where, he admittted, he had his first illicit drink as a teenager.
Dub, the founder and owner of Steampunk, working his antique espresso machine to make our cappucinos.
Old speak-easy, destined to be Dub's new bar and restaurant, as he expands his Natchez business.Natchez boasts one of the Mississippi's splendid bridges. There are actually relatively few of these, no doubt because the river is so wide, and the bridges have to be so substantial.
Frequent barges transporting loads up and down the river at Natchez.The city also boasts two casinos at river level, and also a large number of old pre-civil war mansions which can be visited. We did a tour at Longwood, on a hill on the outskirts of the current town, surrounded by extensive grounds more or less in their natural state. Longwood is the largest octagonal house in the country. The owner, Haller Nutt, had several cotton plantations nearby. Construction started just before the Civil War, and thanks to the war, the inside was never finished, because the craftsmen, all slaves, fled north to join the Union army. It is now preserved in its unfinished state. Only the basement is complete - this is where the family lived and died - and much of their furniture remains in place.
Longwood (1860) is the largest octagonal house in the USA. The structure is compete but only the basement was finished inside. The original huge central finial has fallen off and its remains are inside the house. The one atop this house is a plastic imitation.
Our tour group is shown the basement bedroom of Julia Nutt at Longwood. We never saw any African-Americans on these tours, even though their history is bound up in the Plantations of the deep south.
The unfinished first floor of Longwood, showing the central rotunda.Looking for an "interesting" bar, we were directed to the Blues and Biscuits in Main Street. The fresh biscuits were exquisite, as was their apricot butter, and the cocktails were good too, but the blues turned out to be piped heavy metal! The next night, Sunday, we couldn't find much else open, so we had dinner there as well.
We couldn't resist an afternoon libation at Fat Mama's Tamales in Natchez. Fat Mama herself instructed us in the consumption of the tamales.
A rustic building in Natchez.Finally, we discovered that Natchez was the site of one the south's largest slave markets (early mid-1800's). The Forks of the Road was out of town to protect citizens from disease, and it is now just a little, empty, park surrounded by houses and auto repair shops. But the sordid past is there for all to see, with numerous display panels describing the past history of the site. One quotes a contemporary industialist: "Buy More Negros to Make More Cotton to Buy More Negros". It's probably just as well that there is nothing now to see in this park, other than these interpretative panels.
The Natchez slave market, depicted here in this engraving at the Forks of the Road, was one of the biggest in the country.
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