We first explored the Parkway from MM 0 north to near MM 60, slightly s.e. of Vicksburg. It would be incredibly challenging to stop at every single historic site or pull-off, so we can only mention the ones we chose to visit.
Our main interest was in the Old Trace itself, its history, and the remaining portions of it. When it was being heavily traveled, there were inns established along the way called “stands”. A good example of that is Mount Locust (MM 15.5), dating to 1780, one of the oldest buildings in Mississippi. It was restored in 1956 as a frontier home of the 1820s, the peak of the Trace’s foot and horse travel.
It was easy to imagine travelers reaching this stand, located a one-day walk from Natchez, and emerging from the trail out of the woods. An interesting note, according to the NPS ranger on-site, was that travelers were not allowed to sleep in the house. They had to prepare their own meals outdoors and likely slept in an outbuilding furnished with wall-to-wall corn shuck mattresses. The stand offered them safety, since the Trace was also frequented by thieves and scoundrels.
While exploring around the stand’s exterior, I was captivated by a sweet scent. I followed it and found, almost hidden away at one end of the house, what seemed to be a whole gardenia bush!
I imagined that it brought quiet joy to Pauline Ferguson Chamberlain, the innkeeper from 1801 through her death in 1849. (I just planted a gardenia in my patio in south Texas before we left on this summer’s adventures.)
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