Starting in the early 1900's, the Daughters of the American Revolution began a campaign to make people more aware of the old Natchez Trace and the role it played in the history of the old Southwest. Around the 1930's, the historical importance of the Old Natchez Trace was finally realized, thanks to the efforts of U.S. Representative Jeff Busby of Mississippi, and Trace land was set aside to be preserved.
In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt allotted funds from his "emergency funds" for the construction of the Natchez Trace Parkway, under the direction of the National Park Service.
Today the Natchez Trace Parkway basically follows the Old Natchez Road. The parkway is still not completed, but 313 miles stretches across Mississippi, 33 miles across the Northwest corner of Alabama, and the last 103 miles into Tennessee. The National Park Service estimates that nineteen million people travel the Natchez Trace Parkway each year, making it the most popular, and most visited, unit in the National Park Service system. Along the way, the Park Service has set up nature trails, historic markers, and exhibits which explain all of the area's history. Archaeological sties, early inns, Indian sites, Civil War battlefields and even sections of the original old trace can still be seen today. The Natchez Trace Parkway is a picture album of the beauty and enchantment of a wilderness trail. Come visit!
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