The Natchez Trace Parkway - “The Old Country Store” Restaurant, Lorman, MS, below MM 30

We’d read about a restaurant in Lorman, a speck of a community just off the Parkway. It’s called the Old Country Store and its owner, Mr. Arthur Davis, cooks and serves reputedly the “World’s Best Fried Chicken” – while wearing a crisp white shirt and fine red tie. He and his establishment were featured in Alton Brown’s “Feasting on Asphalt” television program on the Food Network. From the outside, it isn’t very impressive. As the name implies, the building has served as a general store and several other things.

Remnants of of the building’s days as a general store can be seen in the sliding ladders (one on each side of the store’s interior), the shelving, and the drawers. Today, this area serves as a dining room.

The food is served buffet-style in an adjoining room. There was fried chicken, field peas, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans with bacon, mustard greens, salad, cornbread, fruit, and homemade desserts (including banana pudding with vanilla wafers, quite popular in MS). With your choice of non-alcoholic beverages, this all-you-can-eat array cost a mere $8.95!

While I was eating, I could hear Mr. D crooning in a bluesy, Mississippi Delta way that there was “Fresh hot fried chicken” as a new batch was put out on the serving table. When you pay for your meal at the register, Mr. D signs a menu and gives it to you as a gift. You just have to go there! It’s remarkable!

Incidentally, there is nothing remotely healthy in Mississippi cuisine. It’s either fried, has lots of sugar in or on it, or a combination of both! Vegetables have been cooked too long and often with bits of pork fat or bacon in them. This is the South, where you are asked if you want “sweet” or “unsweet” ice tea. “Sweet” tea will give you such a sugar buzz!

Jackson, MS – Timberlake Campground

Our motor home needed an oil change so we left the Trace and went into s.e. Jackson. Our base camp for the coming week was at Timberlake Campground on Ross Barnett Reservoir, in n.e. Jackson (Brandon). This is one of several campgrounds offered through the Pearl River Valley Water District and is located closest to the city – VERY convenient to local attractions, shopping, and restaurants. We highly recommend Timberlake.

We were lucky to get a site on the lake. The Reservoir is huge so fishing and recreational boating occur on other parts of the water. Our campground makes a good fish camp and has a couple of boat ramps.

We enjoyed some good bird watching: Canada Geese, Blue Jays, Eastern Bluebirds. Lots of baby birds (see pix below)!

A fine Canada Goose:

 

A fuzzy young gosling and baby Blue Jay…

Eastern Bluebird…

Mallard drakes taking a break…

Red-headed Woodpecker…

And my favorite, the “Goose Parade”:

These guys were marching along the edge of a parking lot across the water from our campsite. Everything was done by group decision and with constant discussion. Soon after I snapped this picture, they carefully climbed down the rocks and slipped into the water.

The goslings were so fun to watch!

The Natchez Trace Parkway – Vicksburg to Jackson, MS (I-20)

Leaving Vicksburg, we reentered the Parkway just above MM 65, where MS 27 intersects. Heading north toward I-20 at Jackson, there just aren’t too many historical sites.

This segment of the Trace is fairly uneventful, enjoyed mainly for its being a quiet green snippet of time away from “civilization”.

The Natchez Trace Parkway - “The Old Country Store” Restaurant, Lorman, MS, below MM 30

We’d read about a restaurant in Lorman, a speck of a community just off the Parkway. It’s called the Old Country Store and its owner, Mr. Arthur Davis, cooks and serves reputedly the “World’s Best Fried Chicken” – while wearing a crisp white shirt and fine red tie. He and his establishment were featured in Alton Brown’s “Feasting on Asphalt” television program on the Food Network. From the outside, it isn’t very impressive. As the name implies, the building has served as a general store and several other things.

Remnants of of the building’s days as a general store can be seen in the sliding ladders (one on each side of the store’s interior), the shelving, and the drawers. Today, this area serves as a dining room.

The food is served buffet-style in an adjoining room. There was fried chicken, field peas, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans with bacon, mustard greens, salad, cornbread, fruit, and homemade desserts (including banana pudding with vanilla wafers, quite popular in MS). With your choice of non-alcoholic beverages, this all-you-can-eat array cost a mere $8.95!

While I was eating, I could hear Mr. D crooning in a bluesy, Mississippi Delta way that there was “Fresh hot fried chicken” as a new batch was put out on the serving table. When you pay for your meal at the register, Mr. D signs a menu and gives it to you as a gift. You just have to go there! It’s remarkable!

Incidentally, there is nothing remotely healthy in Mississippi cuisine. It’s either fried, has lots of sugar in or on it, or a combination of both! Vegetables have been cooked too long and often with bits of pork fat or bacon in them. This is the South, where you are asked if you want “sweet” or “unsweet” ice tea. “Sweet” tea will give you such a sugar buzz!

The Natchez Parkway – Mount Locust Stand

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.) 

Vicksburg, MS, and the Vicksburg National Military Park

We detoured off the Natchez Trace Parkway to visit Vicksburg which lies right on the banks of the Mississippi River less than 50 miles north of Natchez. It had tremendous historical significance during the Civil War: control of the Mississippi River south of Cairo, IL, and free transport of goods. The Confederacy had seized control of the river, thereby denying the North its use of the river to move and supply its troops, but Union troops waged an enormous campaign to wrest that control away. The South defended its position throughout a valiant and exhaustive effort, the loss of many lives, destruction of property, and several months, but ultimately the North won. The campaign lasted from March 29 to July 4, 1863. To commemorate this pivotal and intense military campaign, a National Military Park was established in 1899 and is administered by the National Park Service (NPS).

The Park is liberally marked by plaques, monuments, statues and busts to honor every single company and/or regiment ever recorded as serving in this one campaign. I think I heard it has more of these commemorative tributes than any other military park in the country! It’s a bit overwhelming and impossible to read all of them. I’ve included a few samples further on.

Initially, the Park was a very large crescent-shape encompassing Vicksburg and incorporating the exact siege and defense lines occupied by both the Confederates and the Union troops during the Vicksburg Campaign. However, this crescent effectively closed off modern-day Vicksburg from any potential growth. An urgent appeal was made to the NPS, a deal was struck whereby the City of Vicksburg was given the southern third of what had been the Military Park, and the NPS was given additional land at the Park’s north end. The stranded monuments are still accessible along roadsides, in people’s back yards, and in the woods!

The park is well-designed. The main roadways are “Union Avenue” or Confederate Avenue”, appropriately located. Signage denoting location of troop movement is on either blue or red background.

Some states spared little to properly acknowledge the troops representing them. The State of Illinois’ monument was rather impressive.

The mosaic floor inside (seen below) was stunning!

This one on the hill represents only ONE of the monuments from Ohio! 

This is a sample marble monument for Wisconsin’s 17th Infantry.

 

Here’s a typical plaque:

And an example of the statues:

This one below remembers Mississippians and, particularly, all the African American troops who served in the war after being “freed” by their slave owners.

The official State of Mississippi Monument for the National Military Park (seen below) almost didn’t get funded! It was approved at the very last minute!

Many of the monuments have elaborate carvings, bas reliefs, and sculptural elements on them:

And this:

And I’ve saved a good one for last -- the monument representing the Great State of Texas:

A closer look shows yucca plants on the base:

God Bless Texas!

The Natchez Trace Parkway - Overview

[NOTE: The Natchez Trace Parkway is the National Scenic Byway and All-American Road created to honor the historic Natchez Trace. The latter, referred to as the Trace, was a system of trails used by buffalo and other wildlife in migration or searching for known salt licks; Native Americans (Natchez, Choctaw, and Chickasaw), hunters and trappers, and by men returning north from selling their wares/goods in Natchez or New Orleans. They would float their goods down on a flatboat, sell their wares and the lumber from the boat itself then walk or ride horseback to their home.

The Trace was mapped as an Indian trail by the French as early as 1733 and, by 1810, it was the most heavily traveled route in the “Old Southwest” -- Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The steamer New Orleans arrived in Natchez in January of 1812, thus began a shift to steamboat travel, leaving the Trace to melt into the forest once again.]

OVERVIEW: Neither of us remember being taught much about the Natchez Trace (the Trace, for short). After we started RVing full-time and met other RV folks, we began to hear and read about it and the Parkway. All reports said the latter was a beautiful and informative drive. One thing leads to another…

Last fall, we began thinking about this summer’s 5 or 6 months’ travel opportunities. Our primary desire was to see our niece Catron, her husband Chris, and their 2 gorgeous toddlers living up in northern VA.

So, road atlas in hand, we developed a reasonable route up to VA and back. Coming from TX, it was natural to wander up through LA and MS, thus a decision was made to “do” the Trace as we headed north.

 The Parkway, administered by the National Park Service (NPS), is 444 miles long, beginning at Natchez, MS, and ending 15 miles s.w. of Nashville, TN. There are no commercial vehicles allowed on the Parkway; no businesses or services are located on the Trace itself but are available in nearby towns and cities. The speed limit is 50 mph (strictly enforced), enabling visitors to enjoy the beauty and history of the Trace at a leisurely pace. There are no billboards. There is NO LITTER – the parkway is continually patrolled by maintenance workers who pluck up any roadside litter with special tongs and empty the trash containers at all the pull-offs.

In our busy lives, when do we ever get to drive slowly along a route, savoring the tranquility, enjoying the fresh green landscape – no visual insults, no pressure – and get to learn so much in addition? The Trace offers many lessons about the Civil War, about slavery and the Emancipation, about the “Old Southwest” (as mentioned above), about today’s South and about southern hospitality. There are many locations en route where you can view portions of the Old Trace itself, worn down by possibly hundreds or thousands of years of foot and, later, carriage travel.

We enjoyed the actual design of the Parkway itself. The Parkway Visitor Center (MM 266) has an exhibit that mentions the concept of “viewshed”. (Yes, like “watershed”) Viewshed means everything within the visitor’s view along the Parkway must be pleasing and appropriate. Therefore, even the way the roadside grass is mowed has a design plan. There are very few straight lines, only along fences; the tree line gently undulates in and out. A small grove stands in the clear, neatly mowed around its feet. A little “cove” is created by mowing back into the tree line, inviting the eye to wander back in. All this thought creates a visual banquet that is so restful and interesting.

The NPS map is arranged by mile marker, corresponding to the actual numbered markers alongside the road. The parkway property varies in width on either side of the roadway, sometimes no wider than a few hundred feet on each side (a total of 800’ wide at its narrowest). Other times, there are dense woods on either side, and a sense of blissful separation from civilization. Oh, there’s an occasional glimpse of a farmhouse or outbuilding but it’s never jarring.

Signage along the Parkway is discrete, identifiable by its brown color and by the arrowhead-shaped signs at the various pull-offs or historic sites. Access to the Parkway from county or state roads only has one brown sign saying “Natchez Parkway” in each direction; they are really easy to miss!

There are 3 free NPS campgrounds on the Trace, offering basic amenities but no hookups or dump stations: Rocky Springs (MM 54.8), Jeff Busby (MM 193.1), and Meriwether Lewis (MM 385.9). All are first come-first served (no reservations) and all three campgrounds are open year-round. They each have a few sites which can accommodate today’s larger RV’s but suit smaller rigs or tents a bit better. Please visit the websites noted below for further information.

We chose to explore the Trace in segments, making one-week stops in Natchez (already posted), Vicksburg, Jackson, and Tupelo, MS, and two weeks in Hohenwald, TN. We then drove the Trace to its northern terminus in Pasquo, 15 miles s.w. of Nashville.

Our posts on traveling the Parkway itself are next.

RESOURCES: We recommend purchasing “Guide to the Natchez Trace Parkway” by F. Lynne Bachleda [2005, Menasha Ridge Press, Birmingham, AL]. It was FULL of valuable information and more than worth its $15 price! We found our copy at the Natchez Visitors Center; it’s for sale at all the Visitor Centers along the Parkway.)

Helpful websites:

http://www.nps.gov/natr/planyourvisit/index.htm

http://www.scenictrace.com/