Labor Day camping trip to Natchez, MS

The prospects of getting in one last camping adventure before school and work got Bragg Family South adequately motivated, so we headed south on Labor Day weekend to explore the Natchez, Mississippi area, a part of the region we've passed through but never really spent much time in...As you can tell by the picture above, Natchez is a historic river town nestled on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River approximately 3 hours south of Monticello.  Natchez was one of the earliest settlements in the Lower Mississippi River Valley, being settled by the French (and later Spanish) during the early to mid-1700s.  It has a prominent early (antebellum) American history, too, and we visited a number of sites linked to that, including the impressive Melrose Mansion, which is one of the properties of the Natchez National Historic Park:

This mansion was built in 1841 by a wealthy family, and while it was not a plantation in the true sense of the word, it did have the dirge of antebellum affluence in the South--slavery was a prominent part of the lives of the people at Melrose.  Below are a couple of the very modest slave cabins at Melrose:

This location is quintessentially antebellum South, with its opulence and darker sides, plus the charms of Spanish moss (shown below):

 For the mechanically inclined viewer, here is a fascinating piece of technology we saw:

This gate hinge permits the gate to swing either direction in a very efficient fashion...  Below is a picture of the minor basilica of St. Mary's Catholic Church in downtown Natchez:

We had made a point to attend mass at this church after seeing it in the promotional material for Natchez, and we weren't disappointed!  Below is a picture I took of the ornate interior:

With its long French and Spanish historic, Natchez has quite a history of Catholicism.  We finished our very busy (and hot) first day of sight-seeing, antiquing, food sampling, and winery visit with a stop at a local ice cream shop before returning to our campsite at Natchez State Park.  The park was pretty filled with visitors, most of which seemed to be from Louisiana, and a large number who had set up their portable satellite dishes and flat-panel TVs so they could watch their LSU Tigers play football that evening...  The next morning we decided to take the Natchez Trace towards Jackson, Mississippi (Mississippi's largest city and state capitol).  En route, we drove through the historic town of Port Gibson.  Port Gibson was taken by US General Grant on his ultimately successful Vicksburg campaign during the Civil War.  Apparently, Grant was so impressed with the beauty of this small city that he spared it from the bulk of the destruction which often followed these campaigns.  Below is a picture of the courthouse, with another southern staple on the left--the monument to the Confederate soldier:

Slavery may have disappeared from Port Gibson with the arrival of Grant, but race-based strife and discord did not.  Below is a plaque and mural dedicated to a boycott of white-owned business in the downtown of Port Gibson by black residents begun there in the 1960s but not fully resolved until the early 1980s:

The Natchez Trace, for those that aren't familiar with this historic route, is a trail that was probably initially used by prehistoric Indians, then early trappers, traders, and other travelers, and goes through the Mississippi and Tennessee countrysides from Natchez to Nashville.  Today, the route is commemorated by the Natchez Trace Parkway (http://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm) which is run by the National Park Service, and is a beautiful and very pleasant paved route to drive--a must for travelers to this area!  Below is a portion of the original Natchez Trace, now preserved for tourists like Stephen and Kenny:

We have ventured on the Natchez Trace various times, and although we did stop at a number of points along the route, it was not our overall goal...Our destination was the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (http://www.mdwfp.com/museum.aspx) which we found mention of in a tourist magazine.  What a great resource for the area!  Below is a picture of a nasty looking prehistoric toothed whale that used to swim the seas of what would eventually become Mississippi (Arkansas, too, I'm sure):

This museum featured a number of exhibits that focused on things (mostly) found in Mississippi, plus they had a neat exhibit with many different live reptiles, too.  Below are more of the prehistoric flora and fauna of the area: 

The kids really liked the various live animal exhibits, including the display below of a various native turtles:

As you can see below, Kenny was definitely more dubious of one of the more common outdoor animal "displays" we saw along this hiking trail at the museum:

The object of his concerns?  The very beautiful golden silk orb-weaver spider!  This large spider (it often measured 2-3 inches long across its legs) spins a large web with a golden colored silk and was EVERYWHERE in the woods around Jackson and Natchez--it is very common along the Gulf Coast, but we haven't see this particular orb-weaver in Arkansas.

Kenny really didn't like the big spiders, so we didn't spend much time hiking the trails at the museum.  When we returned to the large aquarium part of this museum, the kids got to watch a young volunteer in scuba gear hand-feeding the bass, gar, and panfish of in one of their displays:

We returned to Natchez that evening and drove around their historic cemetery, which had a number of neat markers and other features, including this very intricate wood-themed wrought iron fence:

On Labor Day we packed up our camper and headed back to Monticello.  On the way, we stopped at a small state park south of Greenville, Mississippi, and enjoyed a little of the local wildlife, including the owl pictured below:

and a pretty good size gator swimming around in one of the small lakes at the park:

This gator was probably 8-10 feet long!  In the couple weeks since returning, the kids have been getting into the school regime again, Hope has started working part-time in the local school districts as a substitute teacher, and we went to the first UAM Boll Weevil home football game of the year yesterday, complete with our own version of small-scale tailgating:

Though small in comparison to most college football venues, we've always enjoyed our cozy tailgating experiences--plenty of good food and friends, plus it is hard to beat even small college football on a beautiful mid-September evening:

Oh, and a victory by the Boll Weevils (42-34) helps, too!