Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness.
Today on our journey up the Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee we visit another of the trading posts established along the Old Trace, McGLAMERY STAND. It was built in 1849 by John McGlamery, quite late in the old road's history. This stand didn't survive the Civil War, but today, the nearby village is known as McGlamery Stand.
"Annus mirabilis" is the title of a chapter in the book Devil's Backbone by Jonathan Daniels. This is Latin meaning "Miraculous Year." The title was inspired by a quotation from the Englishman Charles J. Latrobe, who journeyed through the American West with Washington Irving in 1811. To Latrobe 1811 was a year of miracles.
In America early in 1811, many rivers flooded, and the flooding was followed by a great deal of sickness. Then there was an unexplained migration of squirrels from the north, tens of thousands, charging south in droves. Nothing seemed to stop them and large numbers perished in the broad waters of the Ohio River, which lay along their path.
The steamboat pioneer, Robert Fulton, hired Nicholas Roosevelt to travel the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to see if a steamboat could navigate them. On our next program we will journey down the Mississippi on a barge with Roosevelt and his newly wed wife.
For Natchez Trace a road through the wilderness, I'm Frank Thomas.
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