Natchez Trace: Difference between revisions

[[Image:{{NatchezT}}]][[Image:{{NatchezTMap}}]]The '''Natchez Trace''', "Old Natchez Trace" or "Chickasaw Trail" was a 450 mile (725 km) long trail connecting what were originally American Indian settlements on the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland_River Cumberland River] (Nashville, Tennessee) and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_River Tennessee River] ("Wawmanona" Indian site near Florence, Alabama) with settlements near the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River Mississippi River] (Natchez, Mississippi, Grand Villiage of the Natchez Indians). European colonists had used the old Indian trail since at least 1742. In 1796 a new section called the [[Maysville Turnpike]] extended the Natchez Trace 275 miles (440 km) from Nashville, Tennessee to Maysville, Kentucky where it connected with [[Zane's Trace|Zane's Trace]] which continued through Ohio to Wheeling, West Virginia. This made it possible to go overland from the east coast to the Mississippi River. After the trace was upgraded to a road in 1801, the same could be done in a wagon for the first time. The Trace declined in importance after 1816 when rival roads and steamboats grabbed much of its traffic.