Natchez: friendly and beautiful...

Natchez MS is a most blessed place, the most appealing of southern towns. It is located on a high bluff on the eastern side of the Mississippi River, several hours upstream of the urban centres of Baton Rouge and New Orleans LA. It enjoys spectacular views upstream (especially) and downstream. The bluffs protect it from flooding, but these are supplemented by ramparts in case of extreme high water. If Natchez's protections are ever threatened, it makes you wonder what would happen to the much lower town, Vidalia, on the Louisiana side of the river!

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.

Many States make light work of the journey to Natchez...

Our next major stopping place was to be Natchez MS, and to get there we decided (again) to partly follow the River Road, and partly the Natchez Trace Parkway, with an overnight break in Vicksburg MS. The route we chose had us leaving Tennessee, and going through Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Memphis is right on the Mississippi border, so it didn't take us long to leave Tennessee. For about 25 miles after crossing into Mississippi and following the river south, there was a constant stream of casinos. Clinging to the border like this, we figure that gambling must be illegal in Tennessee or Arkansas or both, and this plethora of gaming palaces must be placed to service an unmet demand! Whatever, these enterprises were serviced by an excellent 4 lane highway, and so we covered the distance quickly.

Larger farms have complicated grain-handling facilities.

After Lula, we were able to trace the road immediately on the eastern side of the river (MS-1), but, disappointingly, we still barely got a glimpse of the river. A high levee follows the river to protect against floods - it's possible to go up on the levee in many places, but even then the river may be well hidden behind trees. At Rosedale, there is a large port (the largest in Mississippi, according to something we read) and so the river is accessible, but it is particularly unphotogenic here.

Large flat farms in the Mississippi River breadbasket are irrigated by huge watering machines.

Jim Henson, the creator of Kermit the Frog hails from Mississippi state.

The Mississippi River near Lake Providence LA is lined with river houses many of which have private decks over the water.

We crossed the border into Arkansas between Greenville MS and Fairview AR. Surprisingly and confusingly, the road follows the river upstream for 5 miles or so before heading south again. Along this stretch the river is close and visible, so maybe flooding is not a problem here? Then, after another 20 miles or so of flat farmland on US-65 south, you suddenly cross into Louisiana, and near the town of Lake Providence, we saw many houses right on the river with rustic wharves, piers and decks over the water. These are quite pretty. Then, back across the river for an overnight stop in Vicksburg MS.

Joseph Biedenham "The First Bottling of Coca Cola" which took place in Vicksburg by an entrepreneurial shop-keeper (c) Paul Lowry

The I-20 cruelly bisects the retail business centre of Vicksburg, leading to some very confusing navigation, but, thanks to Clare's research, we found a very pleasant restaurant, Billy's Italian, for the evening meal. This unpretentious place is apparently a Vicksburg institution, and can't be too highly recommended. Very popular too! And for coffee the next morning, we found Caffe Paradiso. The cappucino was good but the business was suffering - the owner told us it's because he can't do drive-thru sales because of the layout. He called it the "money window". Surprisingly, he was a soccer fanatic, and a Manchester United fan to boot. English soccer was playing on the TV in the cafe. He said he had dreams of moving to Europe one day.

Mostly we stopped the car to take photographs!

The next day, we took the southern part of the Natchez Trace Parkway from near Jackson MS right through to Natchez. Driving these Parkways in winter is just so pleasant! And it's a good way to learn much of Amercican history. First of all, its important to understand what the word "trace" means in this context - effectively, its a path marked out by the passage of travellers, be they human or animal. The original Natchez Trace (which the new, manicured and beautifully well paved Parkway closely follows), was worn by animals and then native Indians, linking various Mississippi tribes along the Nashville - Natchez diagonal. In 1801 President Thomas Jefferson further devloped the trace for strategic purposes, and the trace, and the towns along it, became important in the Civil War (1860's).

Imformal cemetery for the Patterson family on the old Natchez Trace near Port Gibson MS.

In some places the original trace is "sunken", soft earth worn down by traffic or years and years.

There are no cross-roads on Parkways. All intersections are accompanied by bridges over or under the road, often with rustic bridges like this one.

The town of Port Gibson lies just off the Parkway, and the battle centred there in 1863 (which included naval battles with "iron clads" on the Mississippi) turned this part of the Civil War in favour of the Union. We were told that victorious Union General, Ulysses Grant, regarded the town as "too beautiful to burn" so he refrained from razing it to the ground, apparently the fate of most defeated towns, like Vicksburg. Accordingly, the town is now a collection of fine old buildings, but it now looks extremely poor and depressed. The population is predominantly black, and it doesn't look as though there is much work here.

~1840 Greek Revival building escaped burning by the Union Army after the Confederate Loss in the Battle of Fort Gibson.

The Church of the Golden Hand has a unique spire in Port Gibson.

How Port Gibson is a port is mysterious to us. It's miles up a tributary to the Mississippi called Bayou Pierre, but at the moment, that creek resembles the NSW Darling River in drought. Maybe it was more fluid in earlier days?

Port Gibson also has an interesting role in Civil Rights history - in 1966, a prolonged black boycott of white owned businesses ultimately led to a Supreme Court decision rejecting compensation claims by the whites. This victory is permanently and prominently recorded in a giant mural in the Port Gibson town square.

The boycott of white merchants in Port Gibson was vidicated by the US Supreme Court in a significant Civil Rights judgement.

The Parkway passes Indian mounds, the largest of which is called "Emerald", quite close to Natchez. Learning about these teaches us ignorant Aussies much more about American Indian culture than we have learned from the movies. These cermonial mounds were built by Mississippi Period natives 800 years ago (!!!) and were still in use until 1730 when the population was disturbed, diseased and decimated by the Spanish and French. Substantial structures were constructed atop Emerald Mound. It is astounding to contemplate the work necessary to construct these mounds - the Mississippians were also accomplished farmers, succesfully cultivating corn, beans and squash, and were skilled hunters and fishermen. Sadly, thanks to white settlement, as a tribe, Mississippi Indians have been blown to the winds.

Part of Emerald Mound, ceremonial site for Mississippian Indians.

Believed ceremonial structure atop Emerald Mound, from Natchez Visitors Welcome Centre.

The 444 mile long Natchez Trace Parkway, of which we drove maybe 160 miles, has delighted and educated us. It comes to its end in Natchez, and the final drive into town is along tree lined streets and passes beautiful old homes. We look forward to our stay in this town!