Our tour for today took us up the next increment of the Natchez Trace, specifically from the Mississippi town of Raymond up to MS-16 near Farmhaven. We had to drive a bit to get to Raymond and, as we left our campground at LaFleur Bluff SP, we spotted alligators, turtles, a red-headed woodpecker, a great blue heron and two snowy egrets before we even got to the entry kiosk.
We started by driving a couple miles off the Trace into Raymond where there was a Civil War battle between U.S. Grant and a Confederate general named Pemberton. The battlefield is an almost dead-flat cornfield and Pemberton, who was pitifully understaffed, got his ass kicked. These two generals were to meet again less than a month later when the siege at Vicksburg occurred starting in May, 1863. Raymond has some nice architecture downtown but for even better stuff we headed north up the Trace to Clinton. The locals there have taken old bicycles and converted them into public art sculptures sprinkled around the downtown area.
Our next stop, for lunch, was at Ross Barnett Reservoir, a dammed section of the Pearl River. It is a beautiful lake and the local folks seem to have a great time there playing with their dogs, picnicking, fishing and boating. There are gators in the Pearl so I don’t know if anybody swims in the reservoir. From the reservoir, we continued up the beautiful Trace through the Yackanookany (no kidding) section where we started to pass through cypress and tupelo swamp which was very pretty although it is difficult to make the distinction between sky and water since the reflection of the forest is perfect in the calm water.
Late in the day we finally made it to MS-16 where we turned southwest to Canton where they have a very pretty downtown and a gigantic Nissan auto assembly plant. Soon after passing through town, we got on I-55 for our drive back to Jackson and LaFleur State Park for another night’s stay.
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