Origins of The Natchez Trace
Largely following a geologic ridgeline, prehistoric animals followed the dry ground between the salt licks of central Tennessee to grazing lands southward and the Mississippi River. Native Americans used many early footpaths created by the foraging of bison, deer and other large game that could break paths through the dense undergrowth. In the case of the Trace, bison traveled north to find salt licks in the Nashville area. After Native Americans first began to settle the land, they began to blaze the trail further, until it became a relatively well-worn path. Numerous Prehistoric indigenous settlements in Mississippi were connected by the Natchez Trace. Among them were the 2000-year-old Pharr Mounds of the Middle Woodland period, located near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi.
The first recorded European explorer to travel the Trace in its entirety was an unnamed Frenchman in 1742, who wrote of the trail and its "miserable conditions". Europeans may have earlier traveled the trail, particularly Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. Early European explorers depended on the assistance of Native American guides—specifically, the Choctaw and Chickasaw. These tribes and earlier peoples, collectively known as the Mississippian culture, had long used the Trace for trade, so they likely used it with the Europeans.
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