Old Trace Drive

Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness

"In building the parkway it wasn't possible to follow the Old Trace exactly. What worked for people traveling on foot and on horseback 200 years ago doesn't work well today in a car going 50 mph.

"We are 5 miles north of where the Natchez Trace Parkway intersects Tennessee highway 64 at an exhibit called OLD TRACE DRIVE. This is a 2.5 mile section of the Old Natchez Trace that you can drive along in your car. Visitors have to travel the old road at a slower pace and get to see it up close. It makes you think about the footsteps that have preceded you, about the roaming buffalo and the Indian's plight at the hands of the colonists, of the thousands of Kaintucks and boatmen carrying their goods by river to Natchez and returning home with everything they owned on their backs. They were likely prey for thieves and robbers who waited -- vultures feeding off the work of others. Imagine the weary post riders and troops of soldiers passing through here to build and defend this great nation -- circuit riding preachers, building missions and schools among the Indians.

"These were people like you and me, who swam the rivers and streams, waded swamps and fought disease, and animals, and insects and violent storms. They faced life threatening heat and cold. People did all this... and for what purpose?

"Join us next time When we will visit NAPIER MINE. For Natchez Trace a road through the wilderness, I'm Frank Thomas."

For more about Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness, visit eddieandfrank.com