NATCHEZ | MEMPHIS | TENNESSEE
GREAT RIVER ROAD Mississippi’s stretch of Route 61 runs 300 miles from Natchez in the south to Memphis, Tennessee in the north. For much of the journey it travels in parallel with the mighty, muddy waters of the Mississippi River, passing through fields of cotton, the homelands of the Delta blues, and quintessential small towns of the Deep South that are home to “more characters than you’ll find on Sesame Street.”
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WORDS AND PHOTOS BY SIMON URWIN
his was once considered America’s version of Sodom - the rowdiest and most dangerous spot on the Mississippi River”, says Natchez local John Dicks. “Mark Twain passed through here in the mid-1800s, during his days as a steamboat pilot. He described it as a place with “plenty of drinking, fisticuffing and killing among the riff-raff.” Clearly, it was the fun bit of town!” I go to buy us a round of drinks at the bar of the historic Under-The-Hill Saloon, a place once frequented by cutthroats, gamblers, prostitutes and thieves. “Natchez
nder-The-Hill was a thriving port back then”, says U Dicks, as we sit sipping our bottles of beer. “Cotton was loaded here onto paddleboats then taken north to the textile mills for processing. Cotton was king back then and you had a town of two halves - the rough and tumble of port life down here, and the hoity-toity people up on the bluff. That’s where all the wealthy cotton barons had their town houses.” I climb the hill for a closer look at the more genteel side of Natchez, where more than 500 antebellum mansions still grace the city streets, each one as ornate as a wedding cake. Here, Southern belles would promenade in their crinoline skirts on their way to opera soirées, while out 80
AMERICAN TRAILS SUMMER | 2021
