Natchez MS "On the Mighty Mississippi"

That is the motto of this pretty, small town that was established in 1716 and is one of the oldest and most important European settlements along the lower Mississippi River.  Strategically situated on high bluffs above the river it became a hub of commerce driven by the movement of goods on the river and its position would prove advantageous against any invading force wanting to assume control.  It is the southern terminus of the Natchez Trace, once a walking path established by Native Americans and used by river boat pilots and crews to return to their northern homes in the Ohio River Valley.

The town is noted for its many pre-Civil War homes in the Greek-Revival style as well as later-built Victorian homes.  It became the home of a collection of extremely wealthy Southern planters, who owned vast tracts of land in the surrounding lowlands of Mississippi and Louisiana where they grew large crops of cotton and sugar cane using slave labor.  

We got an orientation by taking a carriage tour one afternoon with a knowledgeable and loquacious guide who showed us some of the sights in the old downtown.

But before I get to that, here is a view from our front window as we are again riverside on the Mississippi.  Same river, different spot - this time we are actually in Vidalia, Louisiana, just across from Natchez.  Except we saw this tour boat on its way upriver to Natchez.  We saw it docked there later in the day.

Getting back to the carriage tour, here we are getting ready to begin. We were the only passengers on this trip so we got the full treatment!

I took a lot of photos of a lot of old buildings, but I don't think I'll burden you with looking at them all.  Rather I will select a couple of standouts or ones with a little off the normal story line to share.

The first of these is a rather modest home dating from 1796.  It has two sets of steps leading to the front porch and door.  One side was for ladies and one for gentlemen! The reason was for the sake of modesty for a woman must never allow her bare ankle to be seen while ascending a stairs.  They are known locally as "the welcoming arms" of the home.

Below is Stanton Hall.  In 1858, Frederick Stanton built the home of his dreams for his family on his new property - an entire city block of Natchez, Mississippi. The city block cost about $1,550.  The house cost over $83,000 before it was even furnished.  Carrera Marble, mahogany doors 2 1/2 inches thick, chandeliers from France, and Italian statuary appointed the interior.  Huge Corinthian columns and granite steps adorned the facade.

Stanton came to America with his brothers in 1815.  He made a fortune as a cotton broker, then as owner of more than 16,000 acres of cotton plantations. Ironically, he lived only one month after his dream home was finished.  It is open for tours and is popular as a wedding venue for Southern Belles (whose daddies can afford it!) 

I did not take a picture of the Natchez Institute a "public" high school established in 1845 and considered one of the finest educational institutions in the country at that time.  What interested me, is a memorial plaque affixed to the exterior.  The text on the plaque is transcribed below.  I will not editorialize but defer to your own thoughts of its contents.

Natchez Institute Plaque

In Grateful Commemoration of the generosity and far seeing wisdom of Alvarez Fisk who by his donation to the city of Natchez in the year 1845 of the grounds whereon this building stands, and by his subsequent contributions for the purpose of establishing a free public school for the education forever of the white children of said city, became the founder of "Natchez Institute" a school which has afforded gratuitous education and training to thousands of the youth of Natchez, this tablet is here placed on the walls of their "New Institute" by the graduates, pupils and patrons of the old Natchez Institute A. D. 1901.

Next is a postcard-like view of the tower of the courthouse as seen from in front of the Presbyterian Church's Greek columns.

We visited Natchez' Under the Hill area where lawlessness was the order of the day back in the day.  Along the riverfront and below the bluffs upon which the city sits was this place visited by rivermen seeking good times, the providers of those good times and by the thieves and shysters preying on them.  Today it is a small retail section where we lunched at the Magnolia Grill.  The photo is of the Riverboat we saw from our campsite the day before. In season, these cruises run the length of the Mississippi from New Orleans to Minnesota.

If you look up toward the horizon of the river you can see a load of barges coming down river.  Below you can see the assemblage closer.  This appeared to be 35 barges under control of a single tow boat.  Impressive to a landlubber.

Melrose is a mansion that is said to reflect "perfection" in its Greek Revival design. The 80-acre  estate is now part of Natchez National Historical Park and is open to the public by guided tours. The house is furnished for the period just before the Civil War. The grounds feature outbuildings including the two storied kitchen and dairy buildings, octagonal cistern houses, a smoke house, a privy, slave quarters, a barn and a carriage house.  Melrose was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974.

The mansion was built between 1842 and 1848 at a time of great prosperity in the South and in particular the cotton industry. It sits among 80 acres of land maintained by the National Park Service and remains much as it did when it was built by Mary and John T. McMurran.

McMurran and five other individuals all lived in the Natchez area and built mansions such as this for no other reason than to flaunt their wealth. Together the six were among the 10 wealthiest people in the country at that time.

The base and columns appear to be fabricated from blocks of marble and marble columns.  In fact, these features are simulated using the talents of faux craftsmen who were all the rage during this time.  Below you can see a cutaway section showing the lath and plaster.  Marble effects were done using vegetable dyes mixed with the plaster.

The grounds surrounding Melrose provide an enjoyable area for a stroll.  Here is a magnificent Live Oak tree and below that is a portion of the formal gardens which are only sparsely in bloom at this Thanksgiving time of year.

That will conclude the posts from our Mississippi River trip.  We are relaxing near the coast of Mississippi in the small town of Gautier and hope to see some shore birds and maybe get some fresh caught shrimp while we are here.

Mississippi River Trip - Part 4 Vicksburg Architecture

Scenes and anecdotes from Vicksburg MS

The historic downtown area of Vicksburg is both quaint and somewhat rundown with many storefronts empty like so many small towns we have seen in our travels.  The Casinos have come to town in a big way and that is likely the lifeblood of the region today.  Interstate 20 passes the edge of town and sports a "new" bridge parallel to the former bridge which carried US 80 traffic.

So the old bridge is on the right (that truck is maintenance, not traffic!) and the new I-20 bridge on left.  Note the extensive "beach" on the far side of the river.  Water levels still seem low to us.

Ameristar Casino is our host for this stay as we are parked in their campground across the street from the casino.  We are not casino people and so have not been inside at all.  It is built to resemble a river boat, but is firmly anchored to concrete pilings and is in no danger of floating down river.

This is an interesting landmark to Coca-Cola history as it is the site where Coca-Cola  was first bottled and sold in 1894.  Today it is largely a museum of Coke artifacts and advertising, but still offers ice cream, fountain Cokes, Coke floats and a wide selection of Coke souvenirs.  The building is in the downtown section.

We, frankly, were a little underwhelmed by the historic homes listed for either tours or as bed and breakfast inns.  The origins are old, but the architecture doesn't impress.  Below is the Anchuca Historic Mansion built in 1830 as a wood frame house.  In 1847 it was remade in this Greek Revival style.  It is said, in 1869,  Jefferson Davis greeted neighbors and friends from the balcony over the entry when he visited his brother who died in the house a year later in 1870.

Below is the Duff-Green Mansion from 1858 originally constructed by skilled slave labor.  It served as a hospital for wounded soldiers of both armies during the Civil War. 

The George Washington Ball House, circa 1822, was built by a distant cousin of President George Washington.  After years of neglect, it was restored in 2004 and is a B&B today.

And finally is the Baer House from 1849 which is also a B&B today.

Mississippi River Trip - Part 3 Vicksburg MS

Vicksburg MS

Because of the city's location on the Mississippi River, in the 19th century it built an extensive trade from the river's prodigious steamboat traffic. Between 1881 and 1894, the Anchor Line, a prominent steamboat company on the Mississippi River from 1859 to 1898, operated a steamboat called the City of Vicksburg.

During the Civil War the North had endeavored to close the Mississippi River to all traffic in an effort to choke the South by limiting its access to food, munitions and basic supplies.  But the site of the town was well selected as it sits atop bluffs that rise several hundred feet above the river surface and was an ideal position to defend and a difficult site to attack.  It remained the final major River port city by May of 1863.  General U. S. Grant had made several unsuccessful attempts to attack the fortifications of the city until he decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. With no reinforcement, supplies nearly gone, and after holding out for more than forty days, the garrison finally surrendered on July 4. This action (combined with the capitulation of Port Hudson on July 9) yielded command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces, who would hold it for the rest of the conflict.

Crater at the 3rd Louisiana Redan

By way of explanation of a little bit of military lingo, a Redan is a French term for a V-shaped feature in a fortification projecting toward an expected attack. 

Late in the siege, Union troops tunneled under the 3rd Louisiana Redan and packed the mine with 2,200 pounds of gunpowder. The explosion blew apart the Confederate lines on June 25, while an infantry attack made by troops from Logan's XVII Corps division, followed the blast. 

The white house to the right in the picture is Shirley's House, also known as the White House, during the siege of Vicksburg, 1863. Union troops of Logan's division set about as engineers and sappers to undermine Confederate fortifications but they had to stay under cover for fear of Confederate sharpshooters.

The North artillery stood amassed while the South employed a scattered artillery strategy.  But when the South fired a volley at Union lines the massed cannons all concentrated on the single enemy piece and neutralized it easily.  Above is part of the Northern artillery line above the crater caused by the blast.

Of course no Military Park would be complete without the many monuments commemorating the service of the many states' army and navy units.  Here is a particularly large memorial from the State of Wisconsin we photographed just for the enjoyment of our Wisconsin readers!

Within the Vicksburg National Cemetery is located the USS Cairo Museum commemorating the recovered remains of a Union Ironclad sunk in the Yazoo River near Vicksburg.  In all 7 such ships were commissioned and built to provide vital cargo transport as well as naval operations in the Siege of Vicksburg. Each was named for a town on the Mississippi.

The Cairo was sunk by the Confederates using a crude underwater mine detonated from shore by a simple battery operated electrical source.  Hidden soldiers waited until the Cairo was over the mine and detonated the device which struck in the section of the hull shown above.  It quickly sank in 36 feet of water but all aboard were rescued by other nearby craft.

The remains were discovered in the 1960s and raised from the bottom 100 years after the Cairo was sunk.  Restoration and reconstruction was completed in 1964 and the results were placed on display.  Above is looking across the boiler tubes toward the stern wheels.

Guess who I caught reading about steam propulsion machinery in the Civil War?

On our first day here we visited the Vicksburg National Military Park which encompasses the fortifications and battle sites.  Also contained within the Park is the Vicksburg National Cemetery which holds the remains of 17,000 Union Soldiers from the Civil War.  It is the most Civil War dead in any cemetery.  Confederate dead from the Vicksburg campaign originally buried behind Confederate lines, have now been re-interred in the Vicksburg City Cemetery (Cedar Hill Cemetery), in an area called "Soldiers' Rest." Approximately 5,000 Confederates have been re-interred there, of which only 1,600 are identified.

Margaret's Grocery

Located north of downtown Vicksburg on old Highway 61, Margaret's Grocery is a unique vernacular art environment created by Reverend H.D. Dennis. Margaret Rogers Dennis ran the former country store for years. When she met and married Reverend Dennis in the early 1980s, he promised her that he would transform her simple store into a place that the world would come to see. 

At the right is a photo from the internet probably taken around 2000.

And, above, is what we found on November 26, 2012, pretty much rubble and ruin.  Recalling that Rev. Dennis who created this was born in 1916, it seems he has reached his promised land.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Below is a photo of the Old Court House Museum which was built in 1858-60.  It is considered the finest antebellum structure in Vicksburg.  Today it houses an impressive museum of local and regional artifacts ranging from pre-Columbian tools and implements from the earliest native settlers to a collection of ladies fashions dating from the Civil War era.

There is a separate room displaying personal possessions and documents of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy.  Davis and your scribe have a birthday in common, though he predates me by 133 years.  Also in the museum is an overwhelming display of military hardware and munitions.  It was an educational and enjoyable afternoon.

Mississippi River Trip - Part 2

We stopped at a State park in Arkansas at Lake Chicot.  The lake is the largest oxbow lake in North America and the largest natural lake in Arkansas, formed 600 years ago by the meandering of the Mississippi River.
The name Chicot, French for stumpy, is after the many cypress stumps and trees along its banks. The lake is approximately 3/4 miles wide and 21–22 miles long from end to end.  Many private residences are located along the shores of the lake and the extreme northern end consists of the State Park.

Evenings provided lovely sunsets seen across the lake and through the pecan and cypress trees prevalent here.

Trust me, there are Bald Cypress lining the far shore nearly a mile distant.  We had a lot of cloudy, cool weather while there and did not get many good pictures.  Fishing for crappie, bass, and bream is popular on the lake, especially on the upper end of Lake Chicot during spring and fall. Fishing for catfish is great throughout the year.  A camper nearby to us was from Louisiana and he went out fishing early each morning and returned early afternoon.  I spoke to him and he told me he comes about four times a year for catfish and this time his catch was low!  He said he had "only" about 65 fish in his 4 days when he said he normally gets as many as 175 to take home!  There is no possession limit on catfish on Lake Chicot and two other lakes in Arkansas.  I saw him pack one he estimated to weigh 25 pounds into a cooler.

   

One afternoon I looked outside to see the ground covered by blackbirds apparently feeding on fallen pecans.  They covered at least four times the area shown in this photo!

Dixie was tormented by squirrels such as this visitor to our grill.  I had not seen such coloring on a squirrel before and was pleased to learn it is an Eastern Fox Squirrel.  They would rip and race around the trees chattering all the while and Dixie was frustrated that they climbed just out of her reach and turned to face her!

Mississippi River Journey

We had been planning to drive along the mighty Mississippi River for a couple of years, but never seemed to make it because of happenstance.  So this year we are finally doing it.  After a rather eventful trip though Virginia and across Tennessee during which we experienced some engine problems that took a trip to Cummins Factory Service in Knoxville to solve we finally stopped in W. Memphis Arkansas and stayed right on the river bank at Tom Sawyers RV Park.  The pictures below show what we saw every day and river barge traffic runs all day and throughout the night.

Above and below was the sunset on our first night in camp.

Below gives an idea how close to the river we were parked and a typical load of barges being pushed upriver. The standard barge is 195 feet long, 35 feet wide, and can be used in 9-feet of water. Its capacity is 1500 tons. Some of the newer barges today are 290 feet by 50 feet, double the capacity of earlier barges.  I cannot estimate the length of these.  We saw as many as 26 barges being pushed by a single "tow" boat.  The name Towboat is a throwback to the canal era when a single barge was pulled by a team of mules. 

Three or four barges side-by-side and as many as 6 or 7 end-to-end are pushed by the tow.  It looks like there are creature comforts aboard and all the modern electronic navigation equipment too.

And finally the sunset on our last evening here, 

Election Night November 6, 2012.

Yesterday as we finished breakfast, Cathy noticed a bird floating over the river and occasionally diving down  to take something from the water.  We watched it for several minutes and decided it was the American Kestrel and it displayed its characteristic behavior of "hovering" facing into the wind and adjusting only with small wing or tail movements.  When it spotted breakfast, it would dive straight down.  The picture is not mine, but one I found on the internet.

Tomorrow we head farther down the river to Lake Chicot State Park in Arkansas.  I'll tell you more about it in my next post.