September 10, 2023 – The American South
Brother Brad and I got a model fort for Christmas one year. It had plastic log palisades, timber lookouts, and log cabins. There were miniature cowboys and Indians, teepees, horses, wagons, and cannons with cannonballs.
The box the model came in depicted frontier battles with a “Davy Crocket” theme.
I can’t tell you how many hours we spent playing with it.
Dozens of plastic trees came with the set, which we used to create a forest around the fort.
For some reason, the trees were of particular interest to me. They were a mixture of towering oak, and long-needled pines, exotic varieties we didn’t have in Saskatchewan. I imagined running through the dense forest as we protected the fort from roving Indians (never once imagining that we might be the aggressors).
The toy is vivid in my memory. Every time we played with it, I was transported to the wilderness frontier of America. I visualized living in the remote fortress, hunting in the forest, and fighting Indians while wearing a coon-skin cap.
As a kid, I longed to see the real American frontier.
Today I did.
Natchez Trace is an ancient trade route that follows a geologic ridge line from Natchez, Mississippi, diagonally through Mississippi and Alabama, to Nashville, Tennessee.
Once a buffalo trail used by Choctaw and Chickasaw people, The Natchez Road is now a scenic byway.
An historical marker at the head of The Old Trace proclaims; “Among those that travelled this road were American Indians, traders, soldiers, “Kaintucks”, post riders, settlers, slaves, circuit-riding preachers, outlaws, and adventurers.
Bear and I followed portions of Natchez Trace as we crisscrossed the American South, adding “restless Canadians” to the list of those who have travelled this ancient route.
The Choctaw people were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) between the years 1831 and 1833, so we met little resistance as we followed the Old Trace Road.
The forest trail is much as it would have been when Davy Crockett came through here in 1812. The Indians are gone, the forts have disappeared, and the cannons are idle, but the trees remain, …
… just as I imagined.
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