Natchez Trace - Hiking the Highland Rim

The Natchez Trace is an historic forest trail within the United States which extends roughly 440 miles from near Nashville, Tennessee, on the north, to Natchez, Mississippi, on the south.  The trail largely follows a geologic ridge line which prehistoric animals followed between northern and southern grazing lands.  It was used by Native Americans for centuries, and was later used by early European and American explorers, traders, and emigrants in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Today, the path is commemorated by the 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway and the Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail. Parts of the original trail are still accessible and some segments are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The European settlers who used it dubbed the road "The Devil's Backbone" due to its remoteness, rough conditions, and the often encountered highwaymen found along the new road.  By 1809, the trail was fully navigable by wagon.  Merchants would buy or build boats to ship goods down the Mississippi River, then sell the boats for their lumber in Natchez, Mississippi, returning to the northern regions of the young United States by traveling up the Natchez Trace.  The northward journey from Natchez to Nashville could take 2-3 weeks. Critical to the success of the Trace as a trade route was the development of inns and trading posts, referred to at the time as "stands," along its route.

Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition fame, met his death while traveling on the Trace. Then governor of the Louisiana Territory, he was on his way to Washington, D.C., from his base in St. Louis, Missouri. Lewis stopped at Grinder's Stand (near current-day Hohenwald, Tennessee), for overnight shelter in October 1809. He was distraught over many issues, possibly affected by his use of opium, and was believed by many to have committed suicide there with a gun. Some uncertainty persists as to whether it was suicide. His mother believed he had been murdered, and rumors circulated about possible killers. Thomas Jefferson and Lewis's former partner, William Clark, accepted the report of suicide. Lewis was buried near the inn along the Trace. In 1858, a Tennessee state commission erected a monument at the site.

Construction of the Natchez Trace Parkway was begun by the federal government in the 1930s. The development of the modern roadway was one of the many projects of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. Construction on the Parkway began in 1939, and the route was to be overseen by the National Park Service.

We found the northern terminus of the parkway and marked it with a selfy:

The Natchez Trace Trail is a designated National Scenic Trail whose route generally follows sections of the Natchez Trace Parkway through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.  The trail comprises 5 sections. 

The northernmost segment is the Highland Rim Section, which extends 20 miles from Garrison Creek, south of Nashville, to the Gordon House Historic Site.  This is the segment we wanted to hike.  However, weather did not cooperate, and we only had a 2-hour window without heavy rain to explore the Highland Rim section.  We chose to hike from Garrison Creek down to the War of 1812 Memorial.

Here, Kathy marks the northern trailhead of the Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail at Garrison Creek:

We continued down the trail, where David discovered an old farm fence:

Most of the trail was forested with maple, oaks, hickory, perhaps alder, and some other trees we couldn't identify easily:

A half mile into our hike, we reached an overlook which, though starting to be overgrown, gave us a beautiful view of adjoining farmland:

This clearly had been farmland, and the trail here seems to be an old farm road dividing two farms.  Throughout our hike, we spotted trees along the trail that have grown around wire fencing that must have originally marked the boundary between adjoining farms:

At our southerly turnaround point, we found the War of 1812 Memorial, which was erected by the Tennessee State Society of the United States Daughters of 1812 on the Bicentennial of the war on June 16, 2012:

This monument memorializes War of 1812 soldiers buried along the old Natchez Trace, and honors the service of all brave volunteers who marched on the Natchez Trace during the War of 1812 to help establish American independence.  The Natchez Trace served as an important route to move troops for the defense of the Gulf Coast Region. Tennessee volunteer calvary under leadership of Andrew Jackson marched down the Natchez Trace to Natchez in January 1813. General Jackson marched with his soldiers on their return April 1813. Solder detachments under Jackson's command again marched on the Natchez Trace in 1814. And following the victory of the Battle of New Orleans, most of the Americans who fought the battle returned on the Trace. Volunteers marched hundreds of miles often in severe weather with little food and inadequate equipment. Natchez Trace inns served as hospitals. Soldiers who did not survive the marches are buried in unmarked graves along the Trace. On General Jackson's return near this point, he proclaimed his view of the significance of the victory earned by the soldier's sacrifices by stating: "Our Rights Will Henceforth Be Respected."

Andrew Jackson, however, had his faults, which we will not debate here, but we appreciated the sentiment of the memorial.

After returning to our trailhead, we started our return drive north along the Parkway, where we encountered some deer:

One of the famous landmarks on the Parkway is the Double-Arch Bridge, which we drove over as we neared the Northern Terminus of the Parkway.  The view from the bridge was beautiful, suffused with farms, horses and farmhouses:

While this was too small a taste of the Natchez Trace, we took comfort in knowing that our route south in the coming weeks will take us along the Natchez Trace Parkway, and that we'll have several opportunities to sample more sections of the Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail.