Arrived Safe and Sound in Kosciusko, MS 4/14/2008

We arrived safe and sound in Kosciusko this morning after only a 75 mile drive up the Trace. We stopped at mile marker 106.9 and saw Boyd Site a Indian Burial Ground with mounds built from 900 to 1,200 years ago. In the one mound we could see archeologists found the remains of 41 burials and the mound was really 3 mounds in one. Differences in the types of pottery found in each indicate that the construction of the mound was separated by a considerable lapse of time.
Then it was up to mile marker 122.0 and the Tupelo-Baldcypress Swamp. Water tupelo and baldcypress trees can live in deep water for long periods. After taking root in summer when the swamp is nearly dry, the seedlings can stay alive in water deep enough to kill other plants. The trail leads through an abandoned river channel. As the channel fills with silt and vegetation, black willow, sycamore, red maple, and other trees will gradually replace the baldcypress and tupelo. DON'T hurry. The change will take several hundred years. As you walk down the steps and into the swamp you will enter a realm of trees, water and reflections. Its subtle beauty and peaceful setting can soothe a tired soul. As you walk along the trail at a leisurely pace your chances of seeing wildlife improves and you may experience the wonderment of discovery. You have to allow time for the magic to work. As we walked we could feel how peaceful and serene it was and did have a very calming affect on you. It was kind of eerie also as you walk along and nothing at all was moving and it was like you were in another surreal world.
Then it was on into the Wally World in Kosciusko and our overnight parking spot. After we got situated and had lunch we loaded 3 caches into the GPS and went into town to look around and do the 3 caches. The first cache was loacted in the center of Kosciusko in a small park named Redbud Springs Bicentennial Park. It had a statue of General Thaddeus Kosciusko who was an American, Belarusian, Lithuanian, and Polish national hero and general. He led the Kościuszko Uprising (1794) against Imperial Russia. Prior to leading the 1794 Uprising, he had fought in the American Revolutionary War as a Colonel in the Continental Army and at the recommendation of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and General Charles Lee, Kościuszko was named head engineer of the Continental Army. The cache had to do with answering 4 questions about the park and the General.
After that cache our next one was in the City Cemetery and was a 2 stage multi-cache. The first stage was a hidden 35mm film container where you had to sign the log and inside it had instructions for the final stage. We found that and got the instructions and set out to find a grave marker located in the cemetery. We found the marker and now we had to answer 6 questions pertaining to the marker. This was the grave site of a mother and father who had 19, yes that's right 19, children. Take a look at the picture and it names them all and when they were born. The mother died when she was 46 and we can see why.
Then we drove to the center of town and a cache located on an old caboose which we didn't find. After looking for that for awhile we drove around town seeing the old buildings and stores. We saw a small wedding chapel in Alexander Memorial Presbyterian Church, Pickles Drug Store, Attala County Courthouse, Mary Ricks Thornton Cultural Center, and many historic homes.
Another of the interesting things in town was the home of L. V. Hull at 123 Allen St. L. V. Hull is an original, a self-taught artist and a lively raconteur. She has a house and yard incredibly crowded with her art. Hull was born and raised in McAdams, Mississippi, but moved to Kosciusko 35 years ago. Hull began creating her art in 1975. How does she create her work? When asked, she gestures in turn towards her head, heart, hands, and eyes. “And you meditate, too,” she adds. Hull is frustrated that so many garbage trucks pass by her home with perfectly good raw material for her art scattered through their cargos. When she started out, “They said I was crazy,” she remembers. In fact, some visitors decided that she was a “hoodoo lady.” She has taken everyday items such as tires, shoes, hanging baskets and telephones and painted them bright colors. In Kosciusko, she is known as the "shoe lady" because she has an abundance of shoes on stakes in her yard amidst flowers such as phlox, petunias, cannas, and lilies. L.V. welcomes visitors into her house. She keeps a guest book and registers over 300 every year from as many as 20 different states and some foreign countries.
Another of the interesting things we saw was a statue in the City Cemetery. It was a statue dedicated to the memory of a Mississippi resident is in the city cemetery in Kosciusko. There, the bereaved widower of Laura Mitchell Kelly immortalized his wife in sculpture. Story has it that Mr. Kelly sent photos of his bride in her 1890's wedding dress to a sculptor in Italy where the statue was made. From an upper story window of his East Jefferson Street home, Kelly viewed the statue erected in the family burial plot. However, its perfect likeness to his deceased love saddened him so much, he could hardly bear to look upon his tribute.
Oprah Winfrey is Kosciusko and Attala County's most celebrated native-born entertainer. Buffalo Road, now Oprah Winfrey Road, makes a loop off Hwy. 12 and passes Miss Winfrey's first church, now the Buffalo Community Center, her family cemetery and the site of her birth-place before rejoining Hwy 12. We did see the homesite where she was born although there was nothing on the site now. Then it was on back to the Rv and I did the logs and caught up on the blog for Sunday and started the blog for Monday. We ordered pizza and wings from Pizza Hut, They have gone down hill recently, and it will probably be the last time we order from them. After dinner Mom read and I looked over the maps and campground books for after we get done on the Trace and then it was time for bed. So good night and until tomorrow in Tupelo we love you all.


Picture List:1-Sassafras Tree 66' High, 5' 6" Diameter and 18' Circumference, 2,3-Burdine Family Grave Marker (19 children), 4-Magnolia Hill B & B, 5-Mary Ricks Thornton Cultural Center, 6-Pickles Drug Store, 7-Buffalo Community Church, Oprah's first church, 8-Oprah's First Homesite, 9,10-L. V. Hull Ethnic Yard Art, 11-Attala County Courthouse, 12-CSA Veteran's Memorial, 13-Daniel Lafayette Smythe..Jefferson Davis said he was the best blacksmith in the Confederate Army, 14-Historic House, 15-General Thaddeus Kosciusko, 16-Natchez Trace Stone Marker, 17-Alexander Memorial Wedding Chapel, 18-Laura Kelly Statue, 19,20,21-Boyd Indian Mound Site, 22,23-Tupelo Baldcypress Swamp.