Arrived Safe and Sound in Tupelo, MS and a Lovely RV Park 4/15/2008

We packed up at Wally World early and left to get going up the Trace so we could stop and see the historic points along the way. WE got on the Trace and our first stop was a mile marker 175.6 Cole Creek. This was another tupelo/baldcypress swamp location which again as you walk along the trail it has a very calming affect on your mind, so peaceful and still.
Then it was on to mile marker 176.3 and Bethel Mission. Bethel meaning "House of God" was opened in 1822 as one 13 Choctaw mission stations. Indians, slaves and other men "labored hard during four weeks.....frequently till 10 o'clock at night, by the light of the moon or large fires" to clear the forest and erect the buildings. The missionaries who took the gospel to the wilderness also taught farming, carpentry, weaving, and housekeeping as well as reading, writing and arithmetic to Choctaw and other area children. In 1826, people moved from the Trace to new roads and Bethel was closed.
On to mile marker 180.7 and French Camp. Louis LeFlore first traded with the Choctaw Indians at a bluff now part of Jackson, MS. About 1812, he established his stand 900 feet to the northeast on the Natchez Trace. Because of the storekeeper's nationality, the area was often called French Camp, a name retained by the present village. We saw the Baptist Church built in 1874, the old school house, many old farm implements, an old well, an old wagon, many old tools on the walls of the school house, a old wash tub with lye soap in it, and a sorghum house where they give sorghum making demonstrations in Sept. and Oct. Sorghum molasses is a thick brown syrup obtained by cooking the juices squeezed from sorghum cane. It is often used as a substitute for sugar. One interesting site close to the French Camp was the Academy established in 1865 to provide a Christian home and school for boys and girls 5-18 years of age. French Camp Academy is a Christian school-home for young people of all ages who need to be away from their home to live and learn. We offer a safe, stable, healing environment for young people from families in crisis. French Camp Academy is a 900-acre community within a community. The 900 acre campus includes a fully-accredited (9-12) private school, designed to accommodate more than 200 students. Through God's provisions, there is a full athletic complex, dining hall, performing arts center, twelve homes (6 for boys/6 for girls), staff accommodations, 3 barns housing up to 60 horses, an observatory, 100,000 watt radio station, camp and conference center with 30 acre lake, swimming pool, tennis courts, historical cafe', log cabin bed and breakfast program, blacksmith shop, and plenty of caring staff. Students work on the campus 15 hours per week training in radio broadcasting, farm management, domestic chores, crafts, clerical duties, quilting and needle work, grounds keeping, woodworking, mechanics and building projects.
On to mile marker 203.5 and Pigeon Roost Creek. This area was a reminder of the millions of migrating passenger pigeons that once roosted in trees in this area. The species has been completely destroyed.
Then on to mile marker 232.4 the Bynum Indian Mounds. Prehistoric people built these mounds between 1,800 and 2,100 years ago. The six burial mounds and associated habitation area at the Bynum site were built during the Middle Woodland period, between 100 B.C. and 100 A.D. The mounds range in height from five to 14 feet. Five of them were excavated by the National Park Service in the late 1940s. The two largest mounds have been restored for public viewing. Mound A, the southernmost of the two restored mounds, contained the remains of a woman placed between two parallel burned oak logs at the mound's base. This individual was buried with an ornamental copper spool at each wrist. Three additional sets of human remains were also found, consisting of the cremated traces of two adults and a child. Mound B, the largest at the site, covered a log-lined crematory pit. An L-shaped row of 29 polished greenstone celts (axe heads) and the cremated and unburned remains of several individuals were located on the ash-covered floor. Other artifacts found in ceremonial context include copper spools, 19 chert projectile points imported from Illinois, and a piece of galena (shiny lead ore).
Then it was on to mile marker 243.3 and the Hernando DeSoto site who crossed the animal paths that later became the Natchez Trace. In 1539, he set out on a long arduous journey that took him across the Southeastern United States. He crossed the Tombigbee River, east of here, in December 1540, and spent the ensuing winter among the nearby Chickasaw Indians. After a dispute with the Indians, deSoto and his army moved westward. He is credited with discovering the Mississippi River south of Memphis, Tennessee, in June 1541.
Mile marker 245.6 was next, Monroe Mission Station. This is where the Chickasaw Indians first received Christianity and education in 1822. Five years later, 100 acres were under cultivation and 81 pupils were attending the school. Boys learned farming and carpentry and the girls learned spinning and weaving in addition to classroom work. More than 150 people were baptized in the church, " a diminutive not over 16 x 16". In front was "a large arbor covered with brush and and seated with puncheons" for summer meetings. Monroe and three other stations were the training centers for many who became leaders of the Chickasaw in Oklahoma.
Mile marker 249.6 which was Tockshish. It was named for a Chickasaw word meaning tree root. Tockshish was a community of Indians and white men on the Natchez Trace to the northwest. John McIntosh, British agent to the Choctaws, first settled there before 1770. In 1801, McIntosh's was made the second post office between Nashville and Natchez, and a relay station where post riders exchanged weary horses for fresh ones. The post office is gone; only the name recalls the time when hoof beats marked the arrival of mail bags that had left Nashville five days before and were due in Natchez seven days later.
The next stop was at mile marker 251.1 and the Chickasaw Council House. Westerly on the Natchez Trace stood an Indian village "Pontatock" with its council house which, in the 1820's, became the "Capitol" of the Chickasaw nation. The chiefs and headmen met there to sign treaties or to establish tribal laws and policies. Each summer two or three thousand Indians camped nearby to receive the annual payment for lands they had sold to our Federal Government. After the treaty of 1832, the last land was surrendered. The Council House disappeared, but its memory remains here in the names of a Mississippi county and town and went west with the Chickasaws as a county and village in Oklahoma.
Our last stop before we got to Tupelo was at mile marker 251.9 Black Belt. Ages ago this area was under an arm of the ocean. Shells and other marine organisms were deposited to form the limestone seen here. Exposure of the limestone to all types of weathering gradually changed it into a heavy fertile soil of various colors. The dominant black soil, which before cultivation was prairie grassland, has given the area the name "Black Belt" or "Black Prairie". The Black Belt extends south beyond Columbus, Mississippi, then trends eastward across nearly all of Alabama. Formerly one of America's great cotton areas, it is now considered excellent pasture land for livestock.
Then it was on to Barnes Crossing Campgrounds, our next stay for a week. We got there and were pleasantly surprised as it was very lovely. The sites were large and pull thrus, the bathrooms were spotless with lots of room and even music, all the hookups were brand new and easy to attach to and we even have our own garbage can. So once we got all set up we had lunch and went out for a look around town. We drove down the road the campgrounds is on and we found a huge mall and this is no lie as we drove about 4 miles down the road there must have been 30-40 restaurants of all kinds. We sropped and got an ice cream at Baskin Robbins and came back to the RV. I cleaned the grill and started the blog for today and tried to finish the pictures from yesterday, but with not much luck. We ate dinner and Mom is watching TV and I am finishing the blog for today. Time to say until we meet again tomorrow and we love and miss you all.


Picture List:1-French Camp, 2-FC Schoolhouse, 3-Land around camp, 4,5,6,7,8,9-Inside of schoolhouse and the adjoining cafe, 10,11,12-Grinding the cane and the way it was ground, 13-Old Wagon, 14,15,16,17-Making sorghum and the house where you can see the demo, 18,19,20,21-Old farm equipment and tools at the Camp, 22-Bell at the Baptist Church, 23-Natchez Trace stone marker, 24-Land around FC, 25-Well at the Camp, 26,27-French Camp Baptist Church Circa 1874, 28,29,30-Cole Creek tupelo baldcypress swamp, 31,32,33,34,35,36,37-Bynum Indian Mounds.