Well here we are safe and sound in Kosciusko, MS at the local WalMart for just an overnight stay. There were a couple of good caches we wanted to do here or else we would have gone farther up the Trace. The first cache was GCH41E “City Cemetery” which was an interesting 2 stage multi in a small cemetery.  The first stage was a 35mm film container where you had to sign the log and inside it had instructions for the final stage. The 35mm container had the instructions for the final stage and we set out to find a grave marker located in the cemetery. We found the marker and now we had to answer 6 questions pertaining to the marker. The marker itself was the grave site of a mother and father who had 19, yes that’s right 19, children and she died at 46, I think we know why too. The other cache was GC14RTD “A Tad Revolutionary” located in the center of Kosciusko in a small park named Redbud Springs Bicentennial Park. It had a statue of General Thaddeus Kosciusko who was an American, Belarusian, Lithuanian, and Polish national hero and general. He led the Ko?ciuszko Uprising (1794) against Imperial Russia. Prior to leading the 1794 Uprising, he had fought in the American Revolutionary War as a Colonel in the Continental Army and at the recommendation of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and General Charles Lee, Ko?ciuszko was named head engineer of the Continental Army. The cache had to do with answering 4 questions about the park and the General in order to find the coords for the final stage.

Next morning it was on up the Trace to Tupelo, MS and our stay at Barnes Crossing Campgrounds. We have to tell you that if you ever get a chance to drive the Natchez Trace you really should do so as there is so many historic and interesting sites to see along the way. Starting at mile marker 176 to mile marker 251 we saw Bethel Mission which means “House of God” and was opened in 1822 as one 13 Choctaw mission stations, Pigeon Roost Creek which was an area that was a reminder of the millions of migrating passenger pigeons that once roosted in trees in this area as the species has been completely destroyed, Bynum Indian Mounds built by prehistoric people these mounds are between 1,800 and 2,100 years old, the Hernando DeSoto site who in 1539 set out on a long arduous journey across the Southeastern United States and crossed the animal paths that later became the Natchez Trace, Monroe Mission Station where the Chickasaw Indians first received Christianity and education in 1822, Chickasaw Council House where once stood an Indian village “Pontatock” with its council house which, in the 1820’s, became the “Capitol” of the Chickasaw nation and Black Belt where ages ago this area was under an arm of the ocean and shells and other marine organisms were deposited to form the limestone seen here. So as you can see just within a short 75 mile stretch there were so many stops that we didn’t even get to do any caching till the next day.

Next morning we were up bright and early to hit the caching trails again. Our first cache was GC8F1D “Twentymile Bottom” which was a virtual cache. Twentymile Bottom, now cultivated, was typical of the many low areas along streams through which the Natchez Trace passed. In 1812 Reverend John Johnson stopped at Old Factors Stand, near this bottom, and wrote this account of bottomland travel: “I have this day swam my horse 5 times, bridged 1 creek, forded several others, besides the swamp we had to wade through. At night we had a shower of rain I took up my usual lodging on the ground in company of several Indians”. We got the answers to the 3 questions and we were on our way to the next cache.

GC10PF2 “Chickasaw Village Site” which was located on the Trace at mile marker 261. It was just a simple traditional cache but it was on
the land of the Chickasaw Nation tribe, population about 2000, who lived in the “Chickasaw Old Fields” a small natural prairie near Tupelo, MS. Although their villages occupied an area of less than 20 square miles, the Chickasaw claimed, and hunted over, a vast region in northern Mississippi and Alabama and western Tennessee and Kentucky. The Chickasaw were closely related to the Choctaw, Creek, and Natchez Indian tribes as well as some of the smaller tribes of the Mississippi Valley.

GC11DJC “Old Town” which was a multi cache along a nature trail located on the land where the Battle of Ackia was fought. This consisted of two pitched battles by the French and allies against Chickasaw fortified villages in present day Northeast Mississippi. This land was also the site of the Treaty of Pontotoc in 1832. This treaty was originally set forth in the article dealing with the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830. The treaty was made on this land in 1832 between the Chickasaw Indians and General John Coffee of TN.

GCE2E5 “TP&R #1″ which was a cache put out by the Tupelo Parks and Recreation Dept near the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Elvis was born in the house we saw on this site which was built by his father. We saw his house, a chapel that was built in remembrance of him, a bronze statue of him at age 13 a car which was like the one his family owned and a story board on which many friends had written things about him. An interesting fact was that in 1936 the Tupelo Tornado, the fourth deadliest tornado in United States history, slammed into Tupelo, MS at around 8:30 P.M. It was an F5 on the Fujita scale, causing total destruction along its path. The death toll was 216 and a very young Elvis Presley and his mother were two of the survivors.

We left Tupelo this morning and traveled up the Trace to a cache GC8F1A “Donovan’s Slough” a virtual cache where you needed to answer 3 questions along a woodland trail which takes you through a lowland where rich soil and abundant moisture support a variety of large water tolerant trees including tulip poplar, sycamore and water oak. Bald cypress thrive in the swampy backwaters of a slough or channel while winding through the bottomland. A 20 minute walk lets you see these trees and the dramatic way the bald cypress grow only in the wet slough. Then it was on to mile marker 286.7 and Pharr Mounds. It is the largest and most important archeological site in Northern Mississippi. Eight large dome-shaped burial mounds are scattered over an area of 90 acres (100 football fields). These mounds were built and used about 1-200 AD by a tribe of nomadic Indian hunters and gatherers who returned to this site at times to bury the dead with their possessions. Then we stopped at mile marker 308 and GC18V7J “Sunken Cave” an Earthcache located at Cave Spring. Cave Spring is an existing attraction along the Natchez Trace Parkway in northeast Mississippi. It is a feature that is a combination of a cave and sink hole. Originally, it existed as a cave in the form of a large room/corridor just under the surface. At one point, the roof of the room weakened and collapsed. The result is what you see today, which are two openings to caves that border the sink hole feature in the middle.

Then it was on to Meriwether Lewis Campground for our overnight stay which is a campground and historical site at mile marker 385 out in the middle of nowhere. Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774-October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark, whose mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis died under mysterious circumstances of two gunshot wounds in 1809 at a tavern called Grinder’s Stand, about 70 miles from Nashville, Tennessee, on the Natchez Trace, while in route to Washington to answer complaints about his actions as governor. Whether Lewis committed suicide or was murdered remains a mystery to this day.

Next time, we will continue our trip up the Trace and arrive in Goodlettsville, TN. So until next month, we wish all our friends in Grand Strand Geocachers HAPPY CACHING!

Tweety & Coach
Dori & Dick

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