Page 6 - July24

The Meriwether Lewis National Monument is a somber but beautiful spot to reflect upon the life of a man who accomplished so much in such a short time. It stands 200 yards from Grinder’s Stand and directly over his gravesite, at mile marker 385 of the NTP. The broken column design represents a life cut short.
airports and opportunities exist to land and take in the sites, history and beauty.
Route, Trail or Trace
Loosely speaking, in traditional French, a “trace” is a line of footprints or animal tracks. In practical use today, the term is interchangeable with “trail.” However, pioneering settlers of the New World often used the words independently to differentiate the characteristics of a route. A trail was thought of as a navigable route between points. A trace, on the other hand, tended to avoid water or wetland crossings, often making the total distance between points longer but easier and safer to traverse.
Originally, the Natchez Trace was a travel and trade route of Native Americans (mostly of the Natchez, Choctaw and Chickasaw nations) and dates back at least 10,000 years in that capacity. Many sections of the trail were blazed not by humans but by wildlife. Animals created paths along natural ridge lines of dry ground (avoiding water crossings) to reach grazing lands and/or areas to partake in salt and mineral deposits. Native Americans utilized the foot paths of deer, bison and other large game. Eventually, man- made paths connected the animal paths, and the Natchez Trace took shape. Native settlements sprang up along the route and their prehistoric stories were gathered through the burial mounds and artifacts they left behind. It wasn’t until the mid- 1700s that European explorers discovered the trace and began to spread the word of its existence. In 1742, a Frenchman wrote of the trail and its miserable conditions. As expected, such explorers relied heavily on assistance from native guides to navigate the trace.
As the 19th century dawned, President John Adams designated the trace a postal route, connecting Nashville with the Mississippi River, deep into what was then only known
to Americans as “the southwest.” Soon after, peace treaties were ›
4 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JULY 2024