April 28-30, 2018 Natchez Lake State Park, Mississippi

80 degree sunny day.  Good day to relax in the shade.

I took my kayak out on the lake at dusk for sunset. I caught the moon in the sunset and a couple of moon tree shots, the last one is a forked moon.

These are all the antebellum homes you can tour here in Natchez. It is only a fraction of the many here. We have toured two. John has had enough but I want to do one more. Maybe tomorrow. It is tomorrow and we toured Stanton Hall. It is one of America's  largest antebellum mansions. It takes  up a whole city block. They don't allow photos of the inside so here is the outside. It was big and lovely furnished with antiques but they are all starting to look alike at this point. 

The Miss-Lou body shop, you bend 'em and we mend 'em. The big leaf magnolia bloom is 11 inches in diameter.The leaves are 25 inches long. My father worked for Kaiser aluminum and I worked for Kaiser health care but I have never seen a Kaiser gas station before. Some of the ornamental iron work on the porch of Stanton Hall. The National Cemetery in Natchez had 3,087 by 1870 and they only knew who 305 are. The collected all the bodies of the Union soldiers from Mississippi and Louisiana and buried them all here. It is now a veterans cemetery too so there are many more graves here. 

The Confederate soldiers are buried in the city cemetery. Probably just the local soldiers since there are much less. Most of them are unknown too. The city cemetery next to the National cemetery  established in 1822 is notable for it's variety of 19th century iron and marble work.

The Turning Angel is said to appear to turn toward you as you drive by it. On the pedestal of the angel is says that it was erected by the Natchez Drug company in memory of the unfortunate employees that lost their lives in the great disaster that destroyed their building in 1908. Seems they had a gas oven installed in one of their labs on the 4th floor. The next day they had one of the volunteer fire fighters come check for gas leaks. He did it how they do it in those days with a lighted candle. There was no gas leak on the 4th floor but he found one in the basement and the whole building exploded and burnt down taking two other buildings with it. There were around 10 people who died including the fire fighter. 5 young women ages 12-22 so damaged that they were buried in a single grave.Some bystanders were also killed. The full moon rising over Natchez Lake that I witnessed from my kayak tonight.

Another moon shot from the lake. I finished up these two cuties today. 

The first one is 4 1/2 inches tall and 5 wide. The center is a piece of glass I made and the beads are crackled glass.  The second one 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches. It has a blue magnetite heart in the center, a concho with a seed bead and gem chips around the edge. 

I spent most of the day in my chair working on the baskets. And read while I hooped and made bread. John smoked a pork roast for dinner and read his book.  Nice to have a down day for a change. 

April 27, 2018 Natchez Trace, Mississippi

Another beautiful 73 degree and sunny day exploring the Trace.

Windsor was a grand mansion that was completed in 1861. It was a 3 story house with 29 columns that supported a projecting roof line. The fluted columns had iron Corinthian capitals and were joined by ornamental balustrade. The owner only lived a few weeks in the house before he died. During the war between the states Windsor was used as an observation post by the Confederates and served as a hospital. Gen Grant also used it as his base when he was here.  The house stayed in the family until 1890 when it burned down. All was destroyed except these 23 columns.

One of the iron Corinthian capitals, a sign saying about the preservation project. It also says that 4-6 pieces of the capitals detach and fall every year. A drawing of the house before it burned down. On the corner you have the choice of going to the nuclear station or the Hub Cap Pool Hall. 

The ruins are outside of Port Gibson which Grant said it was 'too beautiful to burn'. The court house with the memorial to the confederate soldier in front. Raining Manna (raining money??) christian center, only the sign is left of the Dude burgers and the moon between two dead trees on Natchez lake.

The first presbyterian church built in 1860 has the hand pointing to heaven on top of it's steeple making it the most famous building in Claiborne county. Temple Gemiluth Chassed built in 1891 is the oldest Jewish Synagogue in the state and the only one ot if's architectural style in Mississippi. There were 7n churches lined up on Church Street.

The African American Rabbit Foot Minstrels entertainers played a major role in spreading the blues via tours across the south. The 'Foots' headquartered in Port Gibson. There is a Mississippi Blues trail that leads to all the historic sites where the blues started. Some confederate money. It was worthless after the war making not only the rich cotton farmers bankrupt when the economy collapsed but also the rest of the population who worked for a living and the slaves when they were freed. a hearse that people were always dying to get into. A tree across the road. The Grand Gulf tour is a tour of the area including the Grand Gulf Military park. This mural commemorates the Port Gibson Boycott from 1966-80. There was discrimination against the blacks for jobs and wages int he town that was mostly blacks. They boycotted the white businesses for 11 years. The businesses sued for lost earnings and the Mississippi courts, including local and Mississippi supreme court awarded them 1.2 million dollars. The appeal to the US supreme court repealed the ruling. 

At the Gulf Port Military Park an 8 inch mortar probably from a union schooner used in the fight for Vicksburg, the Fort Wade ammunition magazine was a huge hole in the ground. The Confederates blew it up when they retreated from the Union troops. An old wooden organ with wooden pipes in the church. This one man submarine was powered by a model-T engine was used during the early prohibition period to bootleg whiskey and rum from Davis island to Vicksburg. A historic mill at the park with reflected iris blooming around the base.  . 

Rodney Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church was moved here from the ghost town of Rodney built in 1868 was moved here to the park in 1969. It is built in Gothic style. The historic cemetery of Grand Gulf. During the battle here the Confederates  dug rifle pits here. It was a town built on the edge of the Mississippi River that was first decimated by yellow fever, then destroyed by a tornado, then the river changed course and eroded away most of it and then the civil war destroyed the rest. 

The Mississippi river above its banks and almost to the road we are driving on. Flood stage is 48 feet, it is at 50 feet and expected to rise to 51 feet. Our last stop The Frog Farm. It is folk art sculpture garden. Designed by artist Louise Cadney the garden is where life-sized sculptured frogs, birds, reptiles and other amphibians frolic.  Here are some of the frogs and Louise who was working in the garden when we arrived. She makes her pieces out of sticks which she stores here at the farm. Her husband said she had too many sticks at their house so she had to move them to the farm. Kind of like my husband and my needles. . .

Back at camp I paddled out on the lake after dinner. The lake was so calm the water was a mirror. I paddled into clouds and an almost full moon. Sunset on the way back. 

April 26, 2018 Natchez, Mississippi

Cloudy cool high 60's day. We toured some sites in Natchez. Natchez has over 1000 buildings on the historical ledger. In it's hey day it had the most millionaires in the US, during the cotton boom.

Mammy's Cupboard is a roadside restaurant built in 1939-40 and serves a menu of Mammy cooked homestyle meals. She is 28 feet high. Our next stop is the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians. They were the last surviving 'Mound' culture tribe. They farmed. Their ruler was called the Great Sun and lived on the Great Sun Mound. The second mound is the Temple Mound where an eternal flame was kept to symbolize the sun. This mound area was used more for ceremonies and the population lived on farms around the mound. A few french explorers lived with and recorded what their life was like. Later when the French began encroaching on their land the Natchez attacked the fort and killed 200 people, so the French retaliated by obliterating their tribe.  There was a nice museum with artifacts excavated from the mounds and explaining their culture. 

 The Natchez made woven reed baskets and none survived so they had baskets from surrounding cultures. These pine needle baskets were made by the  Coushatta tribe in Louisiana.  I love the animal ones embellished with the leaves of pine cones. 

Some more interesting pine needle baskets. I like the turtle. We then toured Longwood Gardens. The 'Oriental Villa' began construction in  in 1860 but was halted in 1861 by the rising tensions over the Civil War.  The interior was left unfinished except for the lowest level. The Nutt family lived in this finely furnished ground floor until the 20th century. It is the largest octagonal home in the North America. The grounds included  a cemetery, a detached kitchen, a carriage house and the 'necessary' or privy.

The outside was finished. Here are John and I on one of the many balconies. The didn't allow photos of the living quarters which were very lavish. It was supposed to be a six level home. This is the unfinished upper levels. The principle floor was for entertaining, the next floor was for the the bedrooms and the other three were for storage etc. The windows in the tower were going to have mirrors in them and direct light through skylight windows in the floor to the lower levels of the rotunda. 

We spent part of the evening across the Mississippi River in Vidalia, Louisiana. The outside columns of Longwood were hand carved. This is the floor plan of the principle floor that was never built. We also toured William Johnson house. William was a free  African American with a number of  successful barber shops. His home is right of the drainpipe. He built it out of bricks from a hotel down the street that was destroyed in a tornado. The bottom level was for shops and the family lived on the upper level. One of the bedrooms from the upper level. The kitchen and dependency which housed the slaves was in the back. 

We took a nice stroll on the river walk along the top of the bluff over the Mississippi river. This gazebo was on the walk along with a number of historical markers. 

We stopped at the Natchez Brewery so John could taste the IPA and had dinner on the outside deck in the sun that finally came out. Just three years ago is was illegal in Mississippi to brew beer, even in your own home, so the breweries are pretty new to Mississippi. 

April 25, 2018 Natchez Trace, Mississippi

We traveled north from camp on the Trace today. Beautiful 80 degree and sunny day.

These arrowhead signs denote a stop on the Trace.  Loess bluff was a geological exhibit and Mt Locust. Mount Locust  remains as the only one of more than  50 inns that existed between 1785 and 1830 along the 500 mile Old Trace. It has been restored to it's 1810 appearance the time when travel on this historic road reached it's peak.  

The dining area, one of the bedrooms and the junk room.

A travelers pile of possessions, I see he also had the National Park service map of the Natchez Trace to follow. The slave cemetery outback has no headstones, but here is a list of the slaves they think are buried here. 

The family cemetery is more elaborate. The 'Kaintucks' traveled down the Mississippi in their flat boats to sell their wares. Then sold the boats and walked or rode home on the Natchez Trace. Here is one of the flatboats. Sassafras leaves, as stump and greenery and a statue from the family graveyard. 

Hawthorn thorns, a magnolia blossom, what is left of the brick kiln at Mt Locust, and a spiderwort. A field at Mt Locust with red clover.

We hiked part of the original old Trace. The road does not follow the exact route, some of it is still in it's natural state. A trillium starting to bloom and go this way, no this way. . . The classic photo of the Trace is this sunken trail. So many people, horses, wagons etc traveled it and wore down the dirt. 

Here is John in the sunken trace to give you an idea of how deep it is. This is Christ Church episcopal church in Church Hill, Mississippi, built in the 1790's. 

John made these delicious rellenos for dinner tonight. Sunset from camp.