Mount Locust — Natchez Trace Milepost 15.5

Over fifty stands once lined the Trace when traffic peaked around 1810. Mount Locust, opened circa 1780, is the only one left that you can walk into. The route itself started as bison traces between grazing pastures of central Mississippi and salt deposits of the Cumberland Plateau. Native Americans followed the game trails and improved them for foot commerce between villages. By the time Europeans arrived, the Trace had become the fastest overland link between the Cumberland Plateau, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf settlements. After the Revolution, Americans built flatboats, loaded them with goods, and drifted down the Ohio and Mississippi to sell everything in New Orleans — including the salvageable logs and enslaved people. Then they walked home. The Trace was the middle section of that return trip, stretching as far north as Pittsburgh. Steamboats, stagecoach lines, and railroads killed the route. No major cities grew along it between Nashville and Natchez because better transportation axes pulled development elsewhere. That's why the Trace survived almost entirely undeveloped — and why Mount Locust stands alone. NPS rangers interpret the inn, the family cemetery, and a section of the original sunken Trace visible in the woods behind the building. Milepost 15.5, about fifteen minutes north of Natchez. Free. Open daily 8:30am–5pm, February through November. Closed December and January.