Humans have inhabited the Natchez Trace corridor for thousands of years. Their voices electrify the air, skip across blades of grass, swoosh between leaves and Spanish moss.
At Emerald Mound, souls shimmer everywhere.
Ten miles north of Natchez, one can almost touch a thousand years of spirits, a gaggle of souls. People crafted Emerald Mound in 1250AD. Everyone was assigned a basket. Ordered to scoop dirt and carry it to a designated place.
The Mississippian Peoples reshaped the landscape, sprinkling soil and tamping it with their feet. Over and over, they filled their baskets. Dumped the contents. Walked back and forth. Higher and wider and longer.
Emerald Mound is 770 feet long. 435 feet wide. 35 feet high.
The size of several football fields.
No picture can capture its scale.
But if you ever find yourself along the Natchez Trace Parkway‘s southern reaches, you’ll hear someone call you. You’ll bump along a dirt road. You’ll stand atop their creation.
And if you’re lucky, you’ll see their world glimmering there,
between trees and nodes of grass.
Emerald Mound is located near milepost 10.3 on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Follow the signs to the parking area. It’s open every day, sunrise to sunset. Admission is free.
No Make a Memory visit to the Trace is complete without my books!
Get your copies of To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis and Not Without My Father: One Woman’s 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace by heading to my
10 Comments
That is amazing…what the determination of a people can do. Here is another beautiful place in this country to visit.
It’s definitely worth a look someday, Mary.
Other than via your books, the odds that I’ll ever see any of the Natchez Trace are probably slim to none.
However, your post today, as many of your posts do, sent me Googling. When I learned that the Emerald Mound is the “second” largest Indian temple mound in the US, I then wondered what was the largest. That one (Cahokia) is much closer to home, in Collinsville, IL, and at roughly 400 miles might be within reach. I’d love to see, firsthand, the actual result achieved from so much grit and resolve — and that’s not to discount the “results” I see every time I pick up one of your books! 🙂
If you go to Cahokia, you must share photos. I’d love to see it.
Here in Ohio it’s all about Great Serpent Mound, which claims to be the world’s largest serpentine effigy mound. It’s quite something to see, and has the same sort of ethereal feel to it as your photos of the Emerald Mound show. Now that I’m thinking on this, I believe that we need to make a memory in the summer by visiting it again– as adults.
Ally, I hope you’ll share that experience. I’ve read so much about Great Serpent Mound. I’d love to see it myself someday.
A beautiful photograph, Andra. Is this included in your book of images from the walk?
I didn’t take this one on the walk, Lisa. It was from a novel research trip. Emerald Mound is a ways off the Trace. I definitely wasn’t walking in there and walking out, on top of my fifteen miles!! 🙂
i would love to visit it one day –
If you do, please let me know. It could be a great road trip with your family.
Comments are closed.