Cole Creek

"We are making a journey up the Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Along the way we are stopping by the more than one hundred exhibits which the park service has erected to interpret the history, culture and nature along this, one of the oldest roads in the world.

"Today we visit a short nature trail along COLE CREEK, another of the many winding creeks and streams that feed water into the Yockanookany River. The early road paralleled this creek for awhile and it would have been a source of food and water for travelers on foot and on horseback.

"Along the parkway there are several nature trails that explore the process of land being reclaimed from rivers and streams. First the streams reroute themselves and leave channels as backwaters, then water tolerant trees like the Water Tupelo and Bald Cypress grow up in the swamps and slowly build up the land. At Cole Creek a nature trail leads visitors through the last stage of a tupelo, bald cypress swamp and then to the early stages of a mixed hardwood bottom land forest. Early travelers along the Natchez Trace would have been much more familiar with this process than most of us today. The speed at which we travel directly effects the scope of our experience and the scale of our understanding.

"Join us next time when we'll visit the 'House of God,' Bethel Mission. I'm Frank Thomas, your guide along the Natchez Trace, a road through the Wilderness."