June 21, 2010

June 21, 2010

Our first stop today is Arkansas Post National Memorial in southeast Arkansas. Incredibly this location near the junction of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers was the earliest European settlement in the Mississippi valley, older than New Orleans. The French founded it in 1686. A surprising amount of history occurred here. A revolutionary war, an Indian war and a civil war battle were all fought here. It was also the first capital of the Arkansas territory. The site is now almost totally surrounded by swamps and infested with mosquitoes and alligators in this isolated part of southern Arkansas. We walked around the site and then headed into Mississippi.

Late in the day we arrived in downtown Tupelo, MS to see the Tupelo National Battlefield. It turns out to be just a small city park with one monument and two cannons. Disappointed, we drive over to the Natchez Trace Parkway Visitor Center but they have no info either. The Natchez Trace was the national road that people walked back to the Midwest (Nashville) after floating down the Mississippi River. A few miles down the Parkway we stop and walk among the remains of a Chickasaw Indian village.