Tuesday, November 13, 2001
Rocky Springs CG, Natchez Trace, near Port Gibson, MS - Nov 9-13
This is our favorite of the 3 cgs along the Natchez Trace. It is a lovely cg, & both times we have managed to get our favorite pull-thru solar site, so our solar panels have been able to keep our batteries nicely charged.
One day we went to Vicksburg and toured the historic part of the city. This is along the Yazoo & Mississippi Rivers, and there are many lovely old homes still standing. We walked several miles through beautiful antebellum homes. A lot more of Vicksburg was destroyed in the Civil War, so there aren't as many houses as in Natchez.
Another day we went to see Windsor Ruins, where 23 columns are all that is left of an antebellum mansion that was south of Port Gibson. The house made it safely thru the Civil War but was burned down as the result of a careless smoker in 1890. All the drawings & plans for it were gone in the fire. In 1990, when archivists were going thru Civil War papers, they found a soldier's drawing of the house. That is the only reason they know what it looked like.
We also hiked on the sunken trace (part of the old trace that has sunk lower than the surrounding land due to years of use) over to the remains of the town of Rocky Springs, abandoned about 1900. The town never recovered after the Civil War, yellow fever epidemics and boll weevils ruining the cotton crops -- all of which occurred in the last half of the nineteenth century.
One day we went to Vicksburg and toured the historic part of the city. This is along the Yazoo & Mississippi Rivers, and there are many lovely old homes still standing. We walked several miles through beautiful antebellum homes. A lot more of Vicksburg was destroyed in the Civil War, so there aren't as many houses as in Natchez.
Another day we went to see Windsor Ruins, where 23 columns are all that is left of an antebellum mansion that was south of Port Gibson. The house made it safely thru the Civil War but was burned down as the result of a careless smoker in 1890. All the drawings & plans for it were gone in the fire. In 1990, when archivists were going thru Civil War papers, they found a soldier's drawing of the house. That is the only reason they know what it looked like.
We also hiked on the sunken trace (part of the old trace that has sunk lower than the surrounding land due to years of use) over to the remains of the town of Rocky Springs, abandoned about 1900. The town never recovered after the Civil War, yellow fever epidemics and boll weevils ruining the cotton crops -- all of which occurred in the last half of the nineteenth century.# posted by Doug and Willie @ 3:31 PM 
