Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine Issue 914 | Page 36

Dunleith Inn, a stately Bed and Breakfast at Natchez, Mississippi.
Though trace travel might have been
dead, four men by the names of Crockett,
Bowie, Travis and Lewis did make their last
trip along the trace. Crockett, Bowie and Travis continued on to meet their destiny at the
Alamo, while Meriwether Lewis met his dark
destiny, death and controversy at Robert
Grinders stand along the Natchez Trace. To
this day the controversy remains over the final hours of Meriwether Lewis and who fired
the two shots that killed him.
As the history of the trace developed, so
did many towns along the trace. Many have
since disappeared as the economy changed
over time, but some towns still remain and
are rich in history. Prior to European occupation and visions of wealth and fortune in the
New World, the agricultural Natchez Indians
lived peaceful albeit doomed lives along the
bluffs of the Mississippi. Even though French
soldiers sought out and killed nearly the entire tribe of Natchez Indians in 1731, international politics, religion, war and changes in
economy could not prevent the town from
evolving into what it is today. A premier destination where one can see more antebellum homes and architecture than any other

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city in America. The antebellum jewel of the
south and southern terminus of the trace is
Natchez, Mississippi.
The oldest settlement on the Mississippi, Natchez has had Spanish, French, British,
and the American flag fly over its tree-lined
streets, houses and gardens. From the time
of statehood in 1817 until the Civil War, Natchez grew as a center of wealth and culture.
Monumental mansions were erected and
filled with the finest furnishings available
from around the world.
Monmouth, which stands on a prominent hill, was built in the Federal style in 1818
for New Yorker John A. Quitman. Quitman, a
vocal expansionist, became the governor of
Mississippi and supported the invasion and
annexation of Mexico and Cuba. Also for succession and against the federal government,
Quitman took it to the extreme. He rejected
the Federal style of his mansion and had it
renovated into the Greek Revival style which
we see today.
High on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi is Rosalie. Rosalie is built near the
site where the French erected Fort Rosalie
(named after the Duchess of Pontchartrain)
in 1716. This is also the site where the Natchez Indians massacred the French, despite

a warning from an Indian woman who was
in love with a French solder stationed at the
fort. Rosalie was completed in 1823 for Peter
Little, a cotton farmer and lumber mill owner
from Maryland. During the Civil War when
the Union army occupied Natchez, General
Grant briefly resided there.
Stanton Hall, a Greek Revival mansion
completed in 1857 and recognized as “one of
the most magnificent and palatial residences
of antebellum America,” was built towards
the end of antebellum grandeur. Built for
cotton farmer Frederick Stanton, an Irish immigrant, it is one of the most visited National
Historic Landmarks in America. Many people
will recognize this mansion as the one featured in the film North-South.
Back in the woods sits Longwood, built
for cotton grower Dr. Haller Nutt and his wife
Julia. It is considered to be the grandest octagonal house in America. The house, where
construction started in 1860 was planned
to be a six-story 30,000-square-foot Oriental
Villa. What wasn’t planned was the Civil War.
According to the Longwood tour guides,
when the war started, all the “Philadelphia
craftsmen dropped their saws and hammers
and fled north to pick up rifles and bayonets,
never to return.”