The Natchez Trace: Following History's Tracks

Little did we know about the Natchez Trace when we decided to drive it. You hear the name, Natchez Trace, and it sounds historic and interesting, but what exactly is it?

About the Natchez Trace

Before Europeans discovered the New World, native American tribes like the Chippewa, Choctaw and Natchez traveled along footpaths connecting their territories in the Mississippi Valley. Prior to that, people of the Mississippian Period (1200-1730 C.E., Current Era) used the trails broken through the wilderness by animals like buffalo, wolves and bear.

As choice land along the East Coast was claimed, settlers moved west and to the south as they explored what is now Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi.

Trade from these areas and others traveled down the Ohio, Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers south to ports in Natchez and New Orleans. It could be a very profitable venture. Trade is a two-way process, but before the coming of steam, the currents were too strong to return home by river. Boats were sold for their lumber, boatmen either bought horses and goods from their profits to sell in the north or walked the 450 miles from Natchez to Nashville along the series of paths that became known as the Natchez Trace.

It was a treacherous route. If robbers or Indians didn't plunder and kill travelers, disease, accidents fording deep tributaries and slogging through swamps might.

The Rev. John Johnson wrote from the Trace in 1812, "I have this day swam my horse 5 times, bridged one creek, forded several others, besides the swamp we had to wade through. At night we had a shower of rain - took up my usual lodging on the ground in company with several Indians."

No surprise that it was known as "the Devil's backbone."

Boaters weren't the only users of the Trace. More settlers and speculators did business and visited friends along the Trace. Military units of Spain and later the new United States and post riders did, too.

As traffic along the Trace increased, some of the paths were beaten down, creating long passages where the bank was so high travelers could only see what lay immediately ahead. This gave attackers a decided advantage as they could literally jump down upon their prey.

It took about 35 days to traverse the Trace by foot, 25 days on horseback, assuming all went well. In 1810, 10,000 travelers walked the Trace. Once steamboats began to ply the rivers in the mid 1820s, the Trace became obsolete. By the Civil War, it was all but forgotten though some skirmishes and battles were fought in the vicinity.

Prodded by local historians and women's groups, in 1938 the Natchez Trace Parkway became a unit of the National Park System to commemorate the historic route. The Natchez Trace Scenic Trail joined the parkway under the National Park System and the National Trail system, too. Both parallel the original as closely as possible.

We start the Trace

The Good Girls' plan was to leave Nashville and catch the beginning of the Trace to see the Double Arch Bridge, veer over to Memphis then go to Tupelo, return to the Trace Parkway and follow it to its end just north of Natchez.

After finding ourselves in a "Seinfeld" rerun - the car we reserved at Thrifty was no longer available at the Nashville airport - the Good Girls hit the road. Watching the morning traffic inching into Nashville, even slower than it moves in Atlanta, we were glad to be going in the opposite direction.

The Double Arch bridge is a lovely thing, impressive in its simplicity, but, suckers for home cooking that we are, was soon supplanted by the discovery of Loveless Cafe. I had read that any trip on the Trace should begin or end at Loveless, but assumed that was merely tourist board hyperbole.

Fortunately our stomachs were growling and we decided to detour a mile or so and try it for an early lunch.

The complex of shops and motel surrounding the deceptively small cafe spoke to its popularity and the friendly bustle of waitresses around full tables boded well. Biscuits are king here so we each ordered one with barbecue.

Then a plate of four with three different flavors of jam and preserves arrived. Delicious.

Heading to the restroom I passed a glass window behind which was a young woman elbow deep in biscuit dough. They make 10,000 a day! Large, fluffy and heavenly, mounded high with barbecue pork in a sweet sauce, it was immensely satisfying. Not so much that we didn't split a home made cobbler, though.

Satisfied, we left the Trace and headed to Memphis to visit with the memory of Elvis.

A Swine-ful Progressive Barbecue Dinner in Lexington

Lexington, NC  keeps its pork lovin' residents content with 17 barbecue restaurants, all at very reasonable prices.  Although the Swine, Wine and Dine Tour aimed to sample each of them, seventeen in two and a half days was impossible. However, we did manage to cover three in one evening by going on a piggy progressive dinner. It was swineful.

We started at Speedy's Barbecue with a barbecue salad; slices of pork barbecue on top of lettuce with choice of dressing and side dipping sauce.  I chose blue cheese dressing and truly enjoyed the salad as I  had consumed trays of barbecue at Barbecue Central the night before and lunch platters at Lexington Barbecue: chopped barbecue, sliced barbecue, coarse chopped barbecue, barbecue with bark and without. Oh my!

Owner Robbie Johnson says Speedy's  has been in the same location for 50 years. His restaurant uses the rotisserie method of cooking the meat, which is more efficient and cleaner than the pit process. Robbie explained that the pork fat drips while roasting and saturates the pork shoulders below. He says meat cooked this way is very moist. Typically an 18-20 pound raw shoulder will shrink down to 12 pounds.

Speedy's serves an accompanying dip made from one third ketchup, one third white vinegar and one third water with a little salt, pepper, sugar and crushed red pepper added in. The comfortable joint was hopping with satisfied patrons,  but we had to move on.    

Next we went to Smiley's Lexington BBQ where the Good Girls were smitten with the pig statue outside the restaurant. He makes a great photo op.

"Hooray," I shouted, when I learned Smiley's is known for their barbecue chicken. I was delighted with the change to poultry from pork, although they, of course, keep all customers happy with pit barbecue pork, too. My chicken leg tasted moist and tender, truly delicious, and I also appreciated the coleslaw that was white, not red, like at most of the other Lexington establishments. 

Smokey Joe's Barbecue in Lexington

Carrot Cake 

Onward with full stomachs, we headed to Smokey Joe's Barbecue. This restaurant is one of several recommended by Southern Living magazine. They pit cook their pork for 10-12 hours, so the dishes served to diners were cooked the day before. Fortunately, for me, Smokey Joe's is also known for their cakes and pies made locally by The Cake Ladies of Welcome.  I was so full of barbecue, I skipped it and went for  dessert. I chose carrot cake and found the texture wonderfully dense from lots of grated carrots and layered with sweetness from cream cheese frosting. Yummy!  After a few bites, I could eat no more. Lexington, the barbecue capital, burst my seams. I now felt I blended in with all those adorable artworks from a fund-raising initiative known as the "Pigs in the City."

Here are some of the Lexington's famous pigs:

The Art of Art, Wine and Barbecue

Bob Timberlake's Lexington Gallery.

We began our day in Lexington, NC, with a trip to the Bob Timberlake's Lexington Gallery, where the affable artist greeted us with great coffees and amusing stories.
Timberlake was readying for a show in New York's Hammer Gallery, but was more than willing to give us as much time as we had - never enough.

This is what you see as you walk in. Gallery extends way back.

The gallery, conceived by his son, is a treasure trove of sophisticated Americana, from Timberlake's art featuring rural lifestyles, hunting and nature to his home decor and clothing lines. He comes by his style naturally - his family has been in North Carolina for 250 years as has his wife's.

Bob Timberlake.

Timberlake proves that creativity is infinitely flexible. He has done PSAs for Iron Eyes Cody and designs wine labels for his pal Richard Childress's Winery (their Fine Swine Wine, signed by both, sells out all 90 cases during the annual Barbecue Festival). There are 72 new designs of carpets and rugs with Mohawk and Karastan.

Lots of fun, you realize, wandering through the gallery.

"Ideas hit you everywhere," he said. "I have fun with every one I work up."

Naturally, the Good Girls struck a pose with Bob.

BBQ 101
We had fun at our next stop, an early lunch at Lexington BBQ, also known as Lexington #1, Honey Monks and The Monk. You'd better aim for early or very late because lines form around the building during regular lunch and dinner times.

Bub Wright

Keith "Bub" Wright gave us a lesson in Lexington, N.C. style barbecue and Lexington BBQ style cooking. A few stats:

• an 18-pound pork shoulder yields 6 pounds of usable meat; they smoke 6,000 to 7,500 pounds of usable meat on an average day.Christmas week that goes up to 35,000 to 40,000 pounds.

There's an art to turning at just the right time.

• Pit men must train for at least a year; there's $500 worth of meat in those smokers.
• They sell 60 to 65 gallons of hush puppy batter, 500 to 600 pounds of barbecue slaw and 200 to 300 gallons of tea a day.

The finished product.

It's all good as the lines stretching through and outside the building as we left attested.

This line extended outside of the building.

 Time for a bit of liquid refreshment so we headed to Weathervane Winery.

There's a gift shop, too.

What started in the basement has become a business that produces 4,500 cases a year and has three full-time and seven part-time employees.

Sid Proctor.

Retired radio advertising exec Sid Proctor and his wife offer a variety of wine down evenings, special tastings and festivals as well as daily wine tasting for drop-in visitors. Five different varieties, one white and four reds, and seven fruit-style wines are on the shelves.

Situated at the southern end of North Carolina's Yadkin Valley, they make, as Sid says, no frills wine for the market.

The market wants it a bit sweet for our tastes, but expect improvement in anything produced in North Carolina's first federally-approved American Viticultural Area.

Barbecue or banana - split decision

Nothing fancy but good BBQ. Photo by Judy Wells.

Lexington is the self-described "Barbecue Capital of the World" and after cruising uptown, we, a group of 10 travel and food writers, headed to our first encounter with North Carolina's famous smoked pork.  As we walked into the Barbecue Center a couple walked out who had just driven 96 miles to eat there. Pretty good reference, I'd say.

"Try the banana split," they said.

Pigs outside like this one and inside, too, abound.

Like a typical BBQ "joint," the Center is basic inside and out - lots of pig pictures and statuettes, booths, tables, counter stools and diners of all ages pigging out.

Service is swift and before you could say "Cheerwine," the ultimate liquid pairing, we had hefty cups of it and our barbecue was on the way.

Cecil Conrad shows off one of his smoke ovens.

The Center began in 1955 as an ice cream and milk product store a few blocks away, but as winter weather deterred customers they began smoking pork shoulders to supplement the income. Owner/manager Cecil Conrad's uncle bought the restaurant spot in 1961, His father bought it six years later and the family business has thrived ever since.

Today, each week they sell the meat from 100-150 pork shoulders cooked slowly over hickory and oak embers. No rubs here, just a bit of salt. Shoulders put in one of the three inside smokers at 5 a.m. are done by 3 p.m. No automation here  either; strictly manual labors of love.

Lexingtonians like vinegar with their barbecue; vinegar-sauced red slaw accompanies the vinegar, ketchup, water, salt and peppers-based sauce or "dip," in the local parlance. So do hush puppies, lots of them.

Barbecue plate.

My "plate" came piled with rough chopped pork shoulder, red slaw and fries. I could have opted for sliced, chopped, brown (outside cuts) or mostly white meat plus a variety of sides.

Crisp, hot hush puppies.

Baskets of piping hot hush puppies were never allowed to empty.

Didn't measure the whipped cream but there's about 4 pounds of ice cream.

We thought we were full until the subject of the famous banana split arose. Six of us shared the towering monster with its three to four-pound vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream base (a bargain at under $8!). It was like trying to decimate the iceberg that sank the Titanic.

The best we could do.

We lost. Two-thirds were as much as we could manage.

No one we met in the next three days asked how we liked the barbecue (it was excellent), but they all wanted to know how we did with the banana split.

If you come alone or with only one or two others, you'll have decide, barbecue or banana split.

Nation's first gold strike - in North Carolina?

Little Meadow Creek. Photo by Judy Wells.

We've heard of Sutter's Mill in California, but Little Meadow Creek in Midland, ten miles or so from Charlotte, N.C.?

Probably not, but it was the site of America's first gold strike.

On a spring Sunday in 1799, while their parents were at church, the three children of John Reed and his wife were down at the creek bow and arrow fishing.  Conrad, 12, found a 17-pound shiny rock and brought it home. No one knew what it was so it became a door stop until John took it to a Fayetteville jeweler. He asked $3.50 for the 17-pound gold nugget worth about $3,500, the first ever found in the new country.

The trickle, not yet a rush. that came with the discovery of a 28-pound nugget, was on.

Fruit and chocolate crepe at Irene Cafe. YUMMM.

Having already struck edible gold at the tiny, chummy Irene Cafe, where charming Chef Kidane Sayfou turns out superb Brittany-style crepes, we headed out to Reed Gold Mine.

Reed Gold Mine museum. Photo by Judy Wells.

Today there it is a state historic site with a free museum, mine tour and gold panning (at $3 a pan). Kids love the panning - it takes about 20 minutes to go through a pan - and they will probably be thrilled with the tiny flakes usually found.

When it's about gold even kids will pay attention. Photo by Judy Wells.

No one knows how much gold was actually panned and mined here and in the more than 12 NC counties where gold was found. Much of it disappeared into jewelry and private transactions, but there was enough to establish a federal mint in Charlotte where more than $4 million in gold was deposited over the next 20 years.

The last large nugget - nearly 23 pounds worth- was found in 1896 but by 1912 the last mine closed.

The Good Girls, Debi and Judy, at it again.

As usual, we had fun with hats before heading on to Lexington, barbecue capital of the country, for #swinewinedine tour.

Good Girls Debi and Judy sign up for another road trip.

We're on the road again!

This year we pick up an honorary Good Girl in Charlotte, NC, then head to Lexington, NC, a double star on the North Carolina Barbecue Trail, for the #SwineWineDine tour of vittles and vineyards.

After that we dip across the line to invade South Carolina. Not the Charleston and Beaufort of most road trippers but smaller, lesser known locales of Revolutionary War, peaches and wild turkey fame, to hint at a few notable sites.

And yes, more barbecue. Can't do one Carolina without the other.

So log on, settle in and enjoy the scenery and adventures - miss and otherwise.