At Trace's End

Tuesday, July 23, 2013 Road Junkies 0 Comments

ALONG THE NATCHEZ TRACE, Day 5:
Natchez, MS

As much as any other city, Natchez, Mississippi, offers a glimpse into the history of the American South. Home to more than 75 neoclassical and Greek revival homes and an enviable collection of more than 500 antebellum structures, Natchez offers visitors the opportunity to step into a 19th century atmosphere and experience its architectural grace and charm without some of the ugly institutions that underpinned the plantation way of life. (Pictured above: Entrance to Dunleith, c.1856)

How did Natchez manage to hold on to all this antebellum finery when cities such as Vicksburg and Atlanta were decimated during the Civil War? Prior to the war, Natchez had more millionaires per capita than any other American city. Many of these wealthy planters were new to the region and had no emotional ties to the Old South, nor were they particularly eager to see the state of Mississippi secede from the Union. In the absence of any desire to fight against federal forces and wanting to avoid destruction, Natchez offered no resistance when Federal forces demanded surrender of the city in 1862. (In an ironic footnote, the only conflagration that occurred around Natchez in this period was ignited by Confederate forces, which responded to the city's surrender by ordering that all cotton crops within 10 miles of the treasonous city be torched—to keep the valuable resource out of Yankee hands, no doubt.)

Stanton Hall (c.1858), widely considered the grandest of the Natchez mansions

What all this means for today's tourist is a smorgasbord of white-columned luxurious mansions available for touring. A dozen or so welcome visitors year-round, and numerous others open their doors during the annual Natchez pilgrimages. Many are located in the middle of the city and can be viewed from the exterior, even if you opt out of the tours, which are quite reasonably priced ($12 each or $30 for three). With limited time, we chose the drive-bys today. We still had a few letterboxes to find and a historic cemetery to check out.

Turning Angel, Natchez City Cemetery

As we were searching for a letterbox in the Natchez City Cemetery, we were struck by the presence of the Turning Angel statue. Engraved on its base was a poignant epitaph for five local young women killed in a tragic factory explosion in 1908. The factory owner, bankrupted by the fire, had the monument erected to watch over these lost employees. But that didn't explain why the angel seemed so familiar. Then I remembered where I had seen it before—on the cover of a mystery novel by Natchez native Greg Iles. In the book, called Turning Angel, Iles explained that the monument has become an object of both legend and ritual in the town:

When you drive down Cemetery Road, the angel appears to be looking directly at you. Yet once you pass the monument and look back over your shoulder, the angel is still looking at you. Thus the appellation: the turning angel....So famous is this legend that every Natchez teenager at some point in his life drives or is driven down the dark stretch of road to watch the angel turn. Thus has legend spawned a rite of passage for all the children in the town. (Turning Angel, Greg Iles, 2005)

We did not observe the optical illusion, but it seems to be a phenomenon best observed at night—and maybe in the presence of locals to convince you that you saw the angel turn.

St. Mary Basilica

Before we left the city, we stopped to check out the richly ornamented St. Mary Basilica. Constructed over a 44-year period as the cathedral for the Natchez diocese, the church was finally dedicated in 1886. Original construction cost for this elegant sanctuary was $78,241. No doubt the expenses for its meticulous maintenance have increased that amount manyfold in the ensuing century plus.

With hopes of getting home today, we were unable to sample much that Natchez has to offer. Though we didn't put the city high on our list of places to return to, we certainly wouldn't object to passing this way again. As some of the promotions by the local Chamber of Commerce suggest, Natchez is well-suited as a destination for a "Girlfriends Getaway." Lest we get too frilly here, consider that the Natchez Pilgrimage is held annually in the spring and fall, same as the Angola Prison Rodeo at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, and the two cities are only an hour and a half apart. Hmmm. It does set the mind wandering.

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TUESDAY, 23 JULY 2013

Dunleith (c.1856), operated as a historic inn today

Glen Auburn (c.1875)

Magnolia Hall (c.1858)

Melrose (c.1849), under restoration by National Park Service

Stanton Hall (c.1858)

Rosalie (c.1823), served as Union Army HQ during occupation

Natchez City Cemetery

Even the town water tower is picturesque.

Forgotten by Time

Monday, July 22, 2013 Road Junkies 0 Comments

ALONG THE NATCHEZ TRACE, Day 4:
Jackson, MS to Natchez, MS

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Our day began with an early morning self-guided tour of the majestic Beaux Arts style Mississippi Capitol, but that's a topic for another post. By 10:15, we were back on the Natchez Trace Parkway, ready to complete the final 100 miles today, rolling past a few minor sites en route to seek out some ghosts.

Near MM 40, we turned west onto MS-18 and drove into the historic town of Port Gibson (pop. 1,567), the seat of Claiborne County (courthouse pictured above). Chartered in 1803, Port Gibson was home to the first library in the Mississippi Territory, built in 1817. By the time of the Civil War, the town had established itself as a cultural center of the territory, competing with Natchez and Vicksburg in both commerce and the grandeur of its antebellum homes. Though the town has since suffered decades of economic decline, local legend holds that General Grant spared Port Gibson because he found it "too beautiful to burn."

In addition to its fine homes, Port Gibson is home to two most unusual centers of worship. By the time the town was chartered, a Presbyterian congregation was already meeting there. After outgrowing a couple of previous buildings, the church determined to build a new sanctuary in 1860 and added a singularly unique feature.

"Church of the Golden Hand"

When the new church was complete, the steeple was topped with "The Hand Pointing to Heaven," a wooden sculpture created by a local craftsman. Though its symbolic meaning is immediately apparent, it is quite an unusual design. Not surprisingly, First Presbyterian is known colloquially as the "Church of the Golden Hand." Copied from the original, the current hand was forged from iron in 1901 and most recently regilded in 1998.

Just down the street from the "Hand" stands another surprising structure, Temple Gemiluth Chassed, the town's distinctive 1892 synagogue with stained glass windows and a Moorish doorway incongruously topped by a Russian style dome.

A synagogue with no congregation

After the last remaining members of the town's once thriving Jewish community moved away in the 1980s, the building was sentenced to the wrecking ball to expand parking space for a convenience store next door. A local couple bought the historic structure to save it, and it has since been adopted by a Jackson congregation that now maintains it.

From Port Gibson, we meandered west toward the Mississippi River on rural back roads that all but kudzu seems to have forgotten. After driving about 13 miles past occasional abandoned homesteads and overgrown cemeteries, we came to a small sign indicating we had found the 'Ruins of Windsor.' Up a short gravel road, we found the remains of what was once the state's grandest Greek Revival antebellum mansion.

Ruins of Windsor

Built at a cost of $175,000 (equivalent to $4.5 million in today's dollars), Windsor comprised more than 25 rooms and such advanced features as interior bathrooms with water supplied from an attic tank. Completed in 1861, the mansion was occupied by both Confederate and Federal troops before the Civil War ended. Later it served as the scene of lavish parties, hosting such luminaries as Mark Twain, until a fire ignited by a careless smoker reduced the house to ruins in 1890, leaving only the 23 spectral Corinthian columns that now support nothing more than memories.

Rodney street on Google Maps (L) and in reality (R)

On a mission to find a couple of letterboxes, we continued west on MS-552 in search of the ghost town of Rodney. Founded as a river town in 1828, Rodney was once so populous and prosperous it fell only three votes shy of becoming Mississippi's capital city. That was before it was betrayed by the Big Muddy. At its peak, Rodney was a leading river town, primarily because it was set at a relatively easy place to cross the river. Streets were lined with 35 stores, hotels, saloons, barbers, doctors, dentists, a newspaper office and a bank. Traveling thespians on riverboats often performed in the town to packed audiences.

Then, as it does periodically, the river changed course, and Rodney's population dwindled, hovering near zero today. Though Google Maps shows a couple of main streets in what was Rodney, the reality is quite different. Roads into the town are overgrown and some within the town have almost been reclaimed by nature. We were able to locate the two churches where the letterboxes were hidden, but both were too overgrown by weeds to approach. As in Port Gibson, the Presbyterian church was of particular interest.

The former Presbyterian church of Rodney (with a cannonball still lodged above the top central window)

After the fall of Vicksburg during the Civil War, Union troops were stationed aboard the gunboat Rattler in the river at Rodney to maintain federal control. One evening, a group of two dozen sailors decided to attend the Presbyterian church service in defiance of their orders to remain on board the ship. Some time after they were seated, a Confederate officer approached the pulpit, announcing that his men had surrounded the building and demanding the sailors' surrender. When a Union sailor shot at the officer, chaos ensued. The tumult spurred the few troops remaining on the Rattler to begin firing on the town. The church and four homes were hit, but the small contingent of Confederates managed to seize most of the ironclad's crew, including two officers.

Remain in one place too long southwest Mississippi, and the kudzu may drag you into its clutches.

Our GPS had no idea where Rodney was, nor did the AAA road map, so we were sort of winging our way, following MS-552, also known as—Rodney Road! It seemed a logical strategy to us, and as a side benefit, it led us to the campus of Alcorn State University. Of course we had both heard of the historically black college, primarily because of its gritty football teams, but we had never learned exactly where it was located—until today.

Alcorn State's remote campus

Forty miles north of Natchez, 45 miles south of Vicksburg and 80 miles southwest of Jackson, the Alcorn State campus gives new meaning to the word remote. For any parent concerned that their college-age offspring needs to be shielded from the temptations of city living to concentrate on school, Alcorn State is the place. On the Google Maps image above, all the developed area is the campus, some 80 buildings to serve a student body of five thousand. It is surrounded by forests and kudzu. Some of the roads leading from the campus—like the one that goes to Rodney— are narrow unpaved gravel lanes. Nope, no urban distractions here, not a single, solitary one.

Mount Locust Inn

After all this wandering, we finally returned to the Natchez Trace around 3 p.m., entering around MM 30. Fifteen miles south, we stopped at Mt. Locust, the only remaining example of the 50 original inns on the old Natchez Trace. Built in the 1780s and restored to its 1820 appearance, the simple house was built on pilings to keep the interior cooler in the summer. It would have been a day's walk from Natchez and likely the first place travelers north would encounter. A meal of corn mush and milk and some kind of sleeping arrangements on the porch or grounds were offered for 25 cents, an economical and welcome alternative to foraging for food and shelter in an often hostile environment along the trail.

Just north of Natchez, at MM 10, we stopped at Emerald Mound, the most significant native landmark on the parkway. The 35-ft high ceremonial site, built and used between 1300 and 1600, stretches across eight acres, making it the second largest temple mound in the U.S. Unlike dome shaped mounds used primarily as burial sites, this flat-topped knoll supported temples and other ceremonial structures of the ancient Mississippians, ancestors of the Natchez tribe.

Just after 4:00, we entered Natchez, the end of our drive down the parkway. But there is still much to see in this historic city. And that will have to wait for tomorrow.

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MONDAY, 22 JULY 2013

Time has added an elegant patina to the Windsor Ruins.

Capitol Glow: A Beaux Arts Treasure

Monday, July 22, 2013 Road Junkies 0 Comments

MISSISSIPPI STATE CAPITOL:

Jackson, MS

As the twentieth century rolled around, it became clear that the Mississippi government was outgrowing its 1839 capitol building. Just a few blocks away, the state owned a vacant four-block lot on a small rise—former home of "The Walls," Mississippi's first state penitentiary. During the Civil War, the prison had been employed as a munitions depot, making it a target for destruction when Jackson was occupied by Union forces in 1863. This federal land-clearing conveniently created an ideal spot for a new state capitol location.

The state tapped St. Louis architect Theodore Link to design the new capitol building, and what a masterpiece he created. A native of Germany, Link trained in Paris and was heavily influenced by the Beaux-Arts movement in architecture. This inspiration is evident in the Mississippi State Capitol with its grand staircases, variety of stone finishes, elaborate moldings, dedication to symmetry, and richness of detail. Working at the turn of the century, Link was also enamored with electric lighting, a recent innovation at the time, and used this technological novelty to great effect in the capitol, illuminating the interior with 4,750 individual bulbs.

Rotunda detail

Lest you think the people of Mississippi were unnecessarily overburdened by the cost of paying for such a majestic building, let the record show that the state's taxpayers were not asked to contribute a single cent. As noted, the property was already in the hands of the state, and construction costs—a total of $1,093,641—were covered by funds awarded to the state from a lawsuit against the Illinois Central Railroad for back taxes. Let's see what Mr. Link accomplished with this windfall. (NOTE: Though the statehouse had been through numerous "improvements" over the years, a major restoration to its original design was conducted from 1979 to 1982 at a cost of $19 million. No word on who paid for that.)

The architect's astounding variety of materials and creative use of light, coupled with meticulous attention from the building's maintenance staff, give Mississippi a statehouse that offers one breathtaking view after another. Even the utilitarian areas exude a stately air.

2nd floor corridor leading to former Supreme Court chamber

Marble walls and floors on the second floor are crowned with bronze capitals supporting the beautiful coffered ceiling. Before they outgrew the space, the Supreme Court and state library were housed on the second floor. Now both rooms are used for committee meetings.

Partial view of Rotunda (photographed from the fourth floor)

The centerpiece of the second floor is the rotunda, the crown jewel of Mississippi's Beaux-Arts treasure. Link lavished the structure with light, both natural light from the dome and 750 of his electric bulbs to outline and highlight architectural elements. The interior of the shimmering dome received its share of artificial light as well. Four painted medallions depict scenes from Mississippi's history.

Capitol Dome from the rotunda

Grand staircase

Leading up from the second floor, the 'grand staircase' is typical of Beaux-Arts buildings. What is surprising is the unusual use of decorative corbels. Generally employed as a bracket for structural support, here the corbels are laid on their backs to form a sort of curlicued balustrade. On the landing above are three stained glass windows representing Native Americans, Mother Mississippi, and pioneer settlers.
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Memorial stained glass windows

The third floor houses the offices of the governor and lieutenant governor as well as the legislative chambers. Legislators meet in semi-circular wings on either side of the building. Twin glass saucer domes cap the two wings, allowing light into the chambers. Each dome is a decorative masterpiece of classical mouldings and floral-themed Art Noveau stained glass. Of course, Link employed his lights sumptuously here as well.

Dome of the Senate Chamber

These domes reign over elegant chambers with marble walls and no shortage of decorations and embellishments. Members of each house still use the original oak desks installed when the capitol was new in 1903.

Senate Chamber

On this random Monday in July, long before the next legislative session opens in January, we found Rep. Steve Massengill, a freshman legislator from north Mississippi working at his desk in the House chamber. Congenial and sincere, Steve took time to tell us about his first term as a lawmaker and to share some of his legislative goals (in particular, medical care for autism).

Can't get a safer office than this

Steve even shared an 'inside secret' about the Mississippi Capitol with us. During the restoration project back in the 1980s, a wall was removed, revealing a safe that had previously been used by the state treasurer's office. Intensive efforts to locate the combination failed, and renovation continued. Fantasizing that something of value lay within, a few state employees began experimenting with different combinations during their lunch hour. After many attempts, one day someone tried the right sequence and gawked in amazement as the safe door swung open. No treasure was inside, but in the interest of maximizing space, the safe was repurposed as an office.

4th floor corridor

Our tour of the capitol ended on the fourth floor, which houses offices and the entrances to the public galleries of the legislative chambers. Stained glass panels above mitigated the effects of a ceiling height much lower than those on the floors below. The translucent glass floor tiles admit light to illuminate similar decorative ceiling coffers on the third floor.

Attention to detail was not neglected in the design of the exterior. A bas-relief sculpture within the pediment features an allegorical representation of the agriculture, industry and arts of the state.

Pediment above the lofty Roman portico

Above the terra cotta dome sits a lantern topped by a symbolic eagle, cast in copper and gilded with gold leaf. Facing the city, the eagle is eight feet tall with a wingspan of 15 feet. Though the eagle is a popular American icon, only three other states have elevated the national bird to the top of their capitol buildings: New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Idaho (which was heavily influenced by the Mississippi capitol).

No state capitol building we have seen (this was our #15) is more beautiful than the Mississippi statehouse. In addition to its exquisite appearance, we found the Capitol a most hospitable place. Upon our entry, Portia, the security guard on duty, greeted us and made sure we found a copy of the excellent self-guided tour brochure (and complimentary capitol dome lapel pin!). As we departed, she said goodbye, shook our hands and thanked us for coming. Her friendliness did not interfere with her professional screening of our bags and walk-through metal detector examination, but certainly made them seem less burdensome.

Kathy, the tour organizer on the first floor, was equally cordial, ensuring that we had all the information we needed and repeatedly offering to answer any questions we might have. Like Portia and Rep. Steve and other random employees we encountered and conversed with, Kathy seemed genuinely proud of their statehouse, knowledgeable about its history, and eager to share information with visitors.

Like the interior, the grounds were scrupulously maintained and accessible. Arriving before 8:30, we parked on the grounds next to the building a couple hundred feet from the entrance.

As impressed as we were by the magnificent Mississippi State Capitol and our visit, we found one aspect a bit baffling. Though there were subtle touches here and there (leaded glass elevator doors with an 'M' monogram, a mosaic M in a tile floor, brass doorknobs embellished with an M), there was very little in the capitol that was distinctively Mississippi. Portraits of all the states' governors were hung in the halls on the first floor, but there was no statuary of famous citizens, either inside or on the grounds. Even the marble niches in the rotunda, where busts of native sons and daughters are often displayed in other capitols, were empty. When we asked Kathy what is usually housed there, she told us they're used for temporary exhibits that might include anything from bouquets of magnolia blossoms to portraits of Miss Mississippi titleholders.

The Old Capitol Museum, the state's official history exhibition, is closed on Mondays, so we were unable to visit today. We're assuming the state's uniqueness is displayed there.

MONDAY, 22 JULY 2013

Mississippi Capitol Stats

Building height: 180 ft.
Building size: 242,500 sq. ft.
Construction cost: $1,093,641
Cost to taxpayers: $0
Construction period: 1901-03
Light fixtures: 4,750 (750 in rotunda)
Dome surface: Terra cotta
Site size: 13 acres

A Tromp, a Swamp, but No Pomp

Sunday, July 21, 2013 Road Junkies 0 Comments

ALONG THE NATCHEZ TRACE, Day 3:

Tupelo, MS to Jackson, MS

Although Tupelo offers numerous attractions, especially for fans of Elvis, we have visited the city several times before. The only site left on our Tupelo agenda was the Tupelo National Battlefield (pictured above). Having visited other sprawling Civil War sites such as Vicksburg and Gettysburg, we were expecting a bit more than we found in Tupelo.

Though neither side won a clear victory in the 1864 Civil War battle fought in Tupelo, the National Park Service established a one-acre plot on Main Street as a memorial to the 2,000 who lost their lives there. Reading the two interpretive signs and the inscriptions on the granite memorial and snapping a couple of photos took us about five minutes, and we were soon on our way back to the Natchez Trace Parkway. Driving a bit north, we checked out the Natchez Trace Parkway Visitor Center at MM 266 and were rewarded with outstanding exhibits and films detailing the history and ecology of the parkway.

Thick summer growth shades the Natchez Trace from the 90° heat

Continuing down the Trace and stopping occasionally at minor sites, we enjoyed the shade of the thick hardwood stands beside the road. After driving through this kind of canopy, it was quite a shock when we arrived at MM 212, the beginning of an 8-mile stretch of the parkway that was heavily damaged by the same storm system that spawned the Tuscaloosa tornado of April, 2011.

Area of tornado damage

Suddenly the roadside was lined with vertical trees that had branches but no limbs as well as many trees in a horizontal position. Most of the trees in this area were either downed or damaged by the storm, and the National Park Service elected to leave the trees as the storm left them so they could continue to provide homes to wildlife living along the Natchez Trace.

Log cabin at entrance to French Camp

At MM 181, we paused to investigate the Natchez Trace Historic District of French Camp. Around 1810, Louis LeFleur, a French Canadian married to a Choctaw woman, established a stand (tavern and inn) at this site. French Camp has been recreated to give visitors the opportunity to see how early Americans lived and to again offer services to travelers, including a bed and breakfast, gift shop, and restaurant. Though it looked quite interesting, on this Sunday morning, most of the buildings were locked up, so we continued south.

Near MM 160, we exited the Trace briefly to pick up some lunch at the town of Kosciusko (pop. 7,402). Named for a Polish general who offered military assistance to the United States in the Revolutionary War, the town is most famous as the hometown of Oprah Winfrey. A couple of miles outside of town we found a rusted sign indicating that we were on Oprah Winfrey Road.

Pretty shabby for one of America's wealthiest self-made women

Nearby on an overgrown vacant lot was another sign, posted by some of Oprah's cousins, indicating that the home where Oprah was born and lived her first six years had stood at that spot. We were surprised to notice the absence of any mention of the famous Ms. Winfrey on the town sign at the city limits. When we asked some locals if Oprah visited much or whether she donated money to benefit the town, they told us she had come to Kosciusko a couple of times since she became famous, most recently in 2006 to dedicate a Boys and Girls Club that she financed. Maybe she could send her cousins some funds for maintenance on the signs.

About 20 miles north of Jackson, at MM 122, an abandoned river channel has formed a swamp that is home to bald cypresses and tupelo trees. An elevated boardwalk cuts across the swamp, leading to a trail that circumnavigates this isolated wetland full of unseen living wonders.

Cypress Swamp

A healthy stand of duckweed obscured the water's surface making for easy alligator spotting. But the only reptiles we saw at the swamp had shells on their backs.

Beginning about MM 120, the parkway skirts the western side of the Ross Barnett Reservoir on the Pearl River for about eight miles. By this time, hardwood trees along the parkway had given way to a dominant pine forest. The reservoir is a very popular recreational spot for locals, especially on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon. In a protected cove, small gatherings of boats were anchored in close proximity so their owners could socialize.

At MM 102, we exited the Trace onto US-51 and drove into Jackson, Mississippi's capital city, and our destination for the night. After checking in at the historic King Edward Hotel (now operated as a Hilton Garden Inn), we investigated a few nearby sights. We plan to visit the Mississippi Capitol building tomorrow but decided to take advantage of our Sunday arrival to have a look at the grounds while things were a bit quieter.

The beautifully restored old capitol (1839), reincarnated as a state history museum, had closed just before our arrival. Likewise, the imposing Mississippi War Memorial next door had been locked up for the day, but we were able to admire the Art Deco finery on its exterior.

Just down the street, we appeared at the gate of the stately Mississippi Governor's Mansion, confident that we were expected. First occupied in 1842, the house is a classic of Greek Revival architecture, but apparently we were not on the guest list for today.

We found the capitol grounds almost empty, enabling us to capture photos of its well-manicured landscape without the clutter of people and autos. While we were wandering there, a friendly security guard stopped and chatted with us, eager to answer questions and encouraging us to return for a tour tomorrow. When our explorations were at an end, we returned to the hotel for dinner and a relaxing evening in the quiet, almost empty inn.

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SUNDAY, 21 JULY 2013

Extolling the Shoals

Saturday, July 20, 2013 Road Junkies 0 Comments

ALONG THE NATCHEZ TRACE, Day 2:

Florence, AL to Tupelo, MS

Neither of us had visited the Shoals area before, so we had a bit of orientation to do last night after our arrival. We learned that 'The Shoals' refers to the four-city area split by the Tennessee River (pictured above) but joined in spirit as one community. Sprawling on the northern bank sits Florence (pop. 39,359), founded in 1818 by an Italian native, who named it for his favorite city in the Old Country. Strategically located at the western end of the treacherous shoals on the Tennessee River, Florence harnessed the river's power to become an early center of textile manufacturing.

Florence's three smaller and younger siblings occupy the land across the river. Named for a Chickasaw chief, Tuscumbia (pop. 8,423) was founded in 1820 near the head of a large spring. Its rich farmland made the town an early center for agriculture, but today Tuscumbia known primarily as the birthplace of Helen Keller, internationally acclaimed author and advocate for the disabled. North of Tuscumbia, Sheffield (pop. 9,050), a respected recording mecca in the music industry, wasn't incorporated until 1884. Established in 1923, the youngest city of the group—Muscle Shoals (pop. 13,175)—was an unlikely offspring of Henry Ford.

(map from shoalsunited.com)

Early in the last century, the Shoals area attracted the attention of two of America's leading industrialists. In 1921, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison visited the area and announced their vision of creating a 75-mile-long metropolis centered around the Shoals. With electrical power supplied by the newly completed Wilson Dam, Ford intended to build a factory that would employ upwards of a million workers. But the federal government rejected Ford's offer to purchase the dam and implemented the Tennessee Valley Authority instead. Locals did vote to incorporate the town of Muscle Shoals as a result of Ford's interest, but as it turns out, most are just as happy not to be living in the "Detroit of the South."

At the top of our agenda Saturday morning in Florence was the W.C. Handy Home and Museum, but our early start offered the opportunity to search for a few letterboxes before the museum opened. The elegant downtown public library was sheltering a box, but we never made it inside the door. Our attention was diverted by a dazzling array of spotlessly polished automobiles parked in the streets, many with their hoods agape to show off the sparkling chrome within. Downtown arteries were blocked off for a well-attended car show.

After perusing the pampered autos for a few minutes, we left for greener boxing pastures when we discovered that the library didn't open until late morning on Saturdays. The University of North Alabama was close by and offered several hidden treasures.

Founded as Lagrange College in 1830, the university was the first state-chartered institute of higher learning in Alabama. After moving to its current location in 1854, the campus was occupied by both Union and Confederate troops during the Civil War. With a landscape and facilities master plan designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the University of North Alabama's shaded walkways and spacious green lawns give it the appearance of a wealthy estate.

University of North Alabama

Enthralled with its beauty, we wandered the mostly empty campus at will this Saturday morning and easily located the two letterboxes hidden there. Our idyllic tour was jolted to an ugly reality when the clue for one of the letterboxes pointed us to a large cage housing two miserable lions. Leo III and Una, two African lions, were brought to the enclosure as cubs and suffer a life of captivity. Apparently they are forced into even smaller cages and dragged off to the football stadium for home games to be displayed on the sidelines. Where is the ASPCA when they're needed? Not only are these majestic animals cruelly confined in an unnatural environment, they are subjected to severe distress caused by the bizarre experience of being surrounded by the overwhelming noise, crowds and confusion of a football game—certainly not something they would encounter in the grassy plains of their African homeland.

Sadly disappointed by this ugly blemish on an otherwise beautiful campus, we soon left the university and made our way to the Handy museum, which is housed in the log cabin where the legendary musician was born, though it has been moved a few blocks from its original location. An attached building houses an impressive collection of memorabilia, musical instruments and correspondence of the Florence native renowned as the "Father of the Blues."

Our visit to Florence happened to coincide with opening day of the annual ten-day W.C. Handy Festival, which brings music of all genres to a variety of venues across the city and the greater Shoals area. Unable to wait for the kick-off events tonight, we could only add it to our list of places we'd like to revisit, especially for the culminating final day parade featuring a traditional street strut in which participants twirl decorated parasols as they high step down the streets of the city.

Before leaving Florence, we were determined to have a look at the 100-ft single lift lock at the Wilson Dam. A search for a letterbox took us to a small "dam overlook park," but there was nothing to see there except a jungle of overgrown weeds hiding a distant section of the river. We tried driving the bridge across the top of the dam but there was no place to pull over, and on either bank, access to the proximity of the lock was strictly prohibited.

Eventually we stumbled upon River Heritage Park, which we hoped would gain us the view we sought. The park is home to a large interactive fountain with a music and light show on summer evenings. During the day, it provides a cooling playground for area children.

Cooling off in the fountain spray was popular on this hot day.

Another admirable—and fitting—feature of River Heritage Park is the city Walk of Honor, a string of commemorative columns honoring local citizens who have brought fame to themselves and their hometown.

A few miles west, the Natchez Trace Parkway bridge over the Tennessee River is named for General Coffee.

What we did not find at the park was a place to get a good view of the lock. As we searched, we encountered Richie, who was patrolling the park for the city police department. An affable fellow and hospitable ambassador for his hometown, Richie explained that, like so many other 'sensitive' locations, access to the area around the lock had been locked down after the terrorist activity of 2001. "It sure was a great place for a cheap date when I was in high school," he reminisced. Barred from the view we sought, we drove over to Riverview Street (whose river view has been blocked by development) to visit an unexpected jewel in this small Southern city.

The 'front' of the Rosenbaum House with the street in the 'back'

Built in 1939 on the heels of the Great Depression, Rosenbaum House is the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structure in Alabama and one of the few in the Southeast open to visitors. Designed in Wright's Usonian architectural style, the house embodies his vision of an affordable home for a middle income American family. Original cost for the 1,540 sq. ft. home was $14,000, including furnishings, which Wright insisted on supplying himself. By the time the homeowners had their fourth child, they engaged Wright to design a 1,000-sq.ft addition. Breaking with tradition, the back of the house faces the street. Windows on that side are small and high, designed for light and privacy. Facing the river, the front of the house features walls of windows to bring in the outdoors.

Wright-designed furniture in Rosenbaum House

Every piece of furniture was designed by the architect and intended for efficiency. At the time, he found the novel material plywood much to his liking, using it widely in both furniture and built-in storage compartments. By 1999, the elderly original owner could no longer maintain the home, which was in a severe state of disrepair. The city purchased the house and its furnishings and has invested more than $700,000 restoring it to its original splendor and operating it as a museum.

After a late lunch at the popular Rosie's Cantina downtown, we finally left Florence around 3 p.m., arriving in Tuscumbia just in time for a leisurely visit to the Keller birthplace. Built in the Virginia cottage style by Helen's grandparents, Ivy Green contains much of the original Keller family furniture and hundreds of mementos of Helen Keller's life, including photos, letters, and her original Braille typewriter and library.

Ivy Green, childhood home of Helen Keller

Now housed in a gazebo shelter, the famous well pump where Helen learned her first word—"w-a-t-e-r"—is a favorite spot of Ivy Green's many visitors. Teacher Anne Sullivan described the child's breakthrough that day in her journal: "Helen has learned that everything has a name and that the manual alphabet is the key to everything she wants to know." By nightfall of that momentous day, the pupil had learned more than 30 words.

Behind the home are numerous outbuildings dating back to the time when Keller was born at Ivy Green in 1880. Also on the grounds is an outdoor theater where local actors perform "The Miracle Worker" each summer during the annual Helen Keller Festival. (We missed this year's performance schedule by only a week.)

Finally at 4:30, we drove back onto the Natchez Trace Parkway, making only a few brief stops for letterboxes and restrooms on this unremarkable section of the road. Two hours later, we exited at MM260 and made our way to a restaurant for dinner and then to our hotel in Tupelo.

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SATURDAY, 20 JULY 2013

Some History and a Mystery

Friday, July 19, 2013 Road Junkies 0 Comments

Natchez Trace Parkway

ALONG THE NATCHEZ TRACE, Day 1:

Nashville, TN to Florence, AL

After spending a few days in Franklin with Woodie and his family and Nanamama, who was also visiting, we decided it was time for us to wind our way through history on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Stretching from the Tennessee Valley through the Shoals of north Alabama and southward to the banks of the Mississippi River in Natchez, the path that became known as the Natchez Trace was first trod by buffalo. Native Americans followed their path and then United States pioneers.

Early settlers throughout the Ohio River Valley hired traders to float agricultural products, coal and livestock down the Mississippi River on flatboats to markets in Natchez and New Orleans. Because the river current flowed so strongly south, these boatmen would usually dismantle their boats at their southern destination, sell them for lumber, and walk back north along the Natchez Trace, an arduous and often dangerous trek. This was no blossom-lined thoroughfare. Early travelers faced oppressive heat, voracious mosquitoes, swollen rivers, and sucking swamps. If the natural threats weren't enough, hostile Native Americans and roving bandits lurked along the path in search of lone travelers.

After President Thomas Jefferson designated the trace a national post road for mail delivery between Nashville and Natchez, negotiations with the native tribes along the path permitted the establishment of privately owned inns ("stands" in the parlance of the day) to offer basic food and shelter to those journeying on the trace. Generally located about ten miles apart, these rustic structures must have been a soothing sight to weary travelers at the end of a long day.

Stands of hospitality notwithstanding, by the middle of the 19th century, the old trace had fallen into obsolescence as the advent of the steamboat facilitated northward river travel. Almost a century later, interest in the overgrown footpath was reawakened through the efforts of historical researchers and the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1938, the Natchez Trace Parkway became a unit of the National Park System and work began to identify the path of the trace and develop it into a modern scenic road, a task that was not officially completed until 2005.

Having driven the first few miles of the Trace with Woodie a couple of days earlier, we did not begin this journey at the northern terminus, mile marker 444. Rather we started at MM 438.0, Birdsong Hollow, where the Trace intersects TN-96. Spanning the heavily wooded hollow and the highway is the award-winning Double Arch Bridge, completed in 1994, a spectacular point of departure for our excursion.

Double Arch Bridge

With a speed limit of 40 mph, the Trace got off to a slow start, sweeping in gentle curves through the woods of Tennessee lush with thick summer growth. By MM430, the speed limit had reached its peak of 50 mph and we were on our way. At Garrison Creek (427), it was too hot and steamy to hike but we were pleased to find the restrooms open. Squeezed by the recent 'sequestration' budget cuts, the park service has reduced staffing, leading to staggered restroom closings along the parkway, Monday morning through Wednesday morning at some locations, Wednesday morning through Friday morning at others.

Near Birdsong Hollow

Like the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Trace is bounded by a NPS-owned greenbelt isolating the road from development. Some land is leased for farming, but its use is limited to livestock or crops traditional to the South (corn, cotton, soybeans). With the world of commerce left behind and soon forgotten, signs along the Trace seem more meaningful and require a bit more attention. Each one announces a point of interest that one may want to consider visiting.

At MM407, just before the parkway crossed the Duck River near Williamsport, TN, we stopped to check out the John Gordon House, one of the few surviving structures that date back to the time when the Trace was still just a footpath. A loyal friend and military comrade of Andrew Jackson, Gordon and his wife Dolly moved to this spot on the Duck River in 1812 to operate an inn and ferry. John was soon called off by Jackson to fight in the Creek War, leaving Dolly to operate the business. While he was away, John sent her letters describing the house he dreamed of building. Dolly oversaw the construction, and John returned in 1818 to find the home completed, only to die less than a year later. Though Dolly built the house, operated the inn, and lived there another 40 years after her husband's death, this most elegant home on the frontier still bears the name of her husband. (Did I forget to mention that Dolly was also raising their 11 children?)

The house built by Dolly Gordon, completed in 1818

A bit further south at MM404, we hiked down to Jackson Falls, which was no more than a trickle today. The intermittent creek that supplies the flow lacked the wherewithal to fall today, no doubt a big disappointment to the eager swimsuit-clad children prancing down the trail as we were on our way back up. After straying off the Trace to find a place for lunch in the hamlet of Hohenwald, TN (pop. 3,751), our attention was riveted by the Meriwether Lewis Historic Site at MM 385.

A representation of Grinder's Stand (inn) houses the ranger station and interpretive exhibits.

In 1809, Meriwether Lewis was governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory. With his friend and mentor Thomas Jefferson no longer in the White House, some of the bills Lewis submitted for payment by the government were questioned, prompting the governor to set out from the territorial capital of St. Louis en route to Washington to defend his accounts. Traveling through a remote wilderness along the Natchez Trace, Lewis stopped at a small inn known as Grinder's Stand. After eating a meal prepared by Mrs. Grinder, Lewis retired for the evening. Later gunshots were heard, and 35-year-old Lewis was found with mortal wounds to the head and chest.

He was buried near the inn, but the circumstances of his death remain a mystery. Whereas the official NPS stance describes his death as suicide, others have raised the possibility of homicide or assassination. A group of Lewis's collateral descendants (nieces, nephews, cousins—he never fathered children of his own) have petitioned the state of Tennessee and Department of the Interior to have the body exhumed for forensic evaluation. Their request has not been granted, but their unremitting efforts keep the question alive, as reported in their Solve the Mystery web site.

Our minds teeming with questions about this intrepid explorer and how he met his demise in this patch of Tennessee woods, we returned to the Trace and continued our southward journey through thick hardwoods and across the Buffalo River. At MM375, we turned onto Old Trace Drive, a one-way 2.5-mile undeveloped stretch of the old road looping along a scenic ridge that took us briefly northward again.

After we turned back south, our vista opened up to farmlands briefly before the forests of oak and hickory returned to the roadside. At numerous locations along the Trace, signs point to spots with remnants of what is descriptively called the sunken trace, deeply eroded sections of the trail cut in nearby woods when the main path became so waterlogged that wagons could not be pulled through. We paused briefly at MM350 to see an example of this Sunken Trace.

Sunken Trace

When the Trace crossed into Alabama just north of MM340, the land became noticeably flatter, and the woods more dominated by pines, including cultivated stands. A bit further south, at MM327, we crossed the wide Tennessee River at Colbert Ferry, where Chickasaw leader George Colbert ran an inn and ferry in the early 1800s. Though he fought beside Andrew Jackson in the Creek War, commanding an auxiliary troop of 350 Chickasaw braves he himself recruited, Colbert is rumored to have once charged Old Hickory $75,000 to transport his Tennessee army across the river.

John Coffee Memorial Bridge across the Tennessee River

Our crossing today was quicker and exceedingly less expensive on the sleek bridge named for a 19th century Alabama general. Soon we exited the Trace onto AL-21 in hopes of taking in the Helen Keller birthplace in Tuscumbia a half hour away. By this time, the clock was pushing 3:30, and a quick check of the Ivy Green web site indicated we would arrive just in time to see the doors locked for the day. Shifting gears, we settled for a place with no set hours—the Coon Dog Cemetery.

The well-tended resting places of some fine hunting hounds

Deep in the Alabama woods near a popular hunting lodge miles outside the little town of Cherokee (pop. 1,237), Key Underwood sadly buried his faithful dog Troop after more than 15 years of adventures together. The year was 1937, and before long, other hunters began laying their special hounds to rest near Troop. Though it hadn't been Mr. Underwood's intention to establish a coon dog cemetery, that's exactly what he had done. Interments are limited to coon dogs and include treasured hunting dogs from various parts of the U.S. Now something of a tourist attraction, the cemetery is well-tended with more flower-bedecked graves than most burial places for humans. Markers run the gamut from simple rocks to traditional granite markers. Our favorite epitaph was one etched out on sheet metal for Track (1976-1989): "He wasn't the best, but he was the best I ever had."

Bidding farewell to the hounds and the other visiting tourists, we continued east to Florence (pop. 39,354), where we plan to spend the night and visit the W.C. Handy Museum before heading to the Keller home and back to the Trace tomorrow morning.

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FRIDAY, 19 JULY 2013