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NATCHEZ TRACE

Natchez Trace was an old road, measuring more than 500 miles long (800 kilometers); it ran between Natchez, Mississippi, and Nashville, Tennessee. "Natchez" is derived from an Indian tribe, which lived in Mississippi during colonial times, and "trace" is another word for trail often used in the South. The trace was carved out during the mid-1700s by pioneers who followed old Indian trails from Natchez, situated on the bluffs above the Mississippi River, through present-day Mississippi and northwestern Alabama to Nashville, in north-central Tennessee. Traders would float goods on flatboats (barges) down the Mississippi River, later returning north via the trace. The city of Natchez became an important trade center and between 1798 and 1802, when it was the capital of the Mississippi Territory. In 1806 Congress authorized construction of a road to follow the trace, widening it to accommodate wagons, and making it a post road, which was used to transport mail. During the early 1800s Natchez Trace was of great military and commercial importance. In 1938 it was made into a National Parkway.