The geologic origins of Natchez, Mississippi
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Most every city is located where it is for very logical reasons. Because cities are at the most basic level commercial centers they were usually located with direct access to rivers, lakes, seas, or oceans. As roads and railroads were developed cities grew up on those routes.
Some cities came about for more complex reasons and they are a more interesting study for that reason. Natchez, MS (U.S.A.) is such a place.
Natchez was settled because its location is at the junction of two very different means of transportation that developed over thousands of years. This succession of events and conditions traces its origin back to geologic history. Natchez's history begins more than 12,000 years ago when the most recent ice-age is ending and the "river" is about 30 miles wide at the point where the City of Natchez stands today. The land on the east is higher (about 75ft above sea level) than the west ( about 65 ft. today, lower then). As the deluge begins ending the land to the West becomes a vast plain of finely ground dust washed down by the river. For a long period a strong West wind carried this dust (loess) across the river and it began to accumulate east to a series of ridges about 6 - 10miles from the river. Over eons this accumulation reached more than100 feet just yards from the river's Eastern edge. These bluffs are among the highest on the lower Mississippi (South of Memphis).
The East side of the River is home to a vast hardwood forest containing many species of trees not usually associated with the lower South; elm, ash, walnut, and many others. The West side is a delta, flat and fertile.
Herds of large animals began to migrate through this area but because the forest was so dense, with very little grasslands, they were forced to continually move between the river (at present Natchez) and salt licks on a river about 500 miles to the northwest (the Cumberland, near present day Nashville) over time a series of game trails were etched into the landscape.
about 6,000 bc -
The first humans moved into this area probably about 8,000 years ago (where they came from will start an argument among any group of Natchez history lovers). They were small groups, usually related by blood, and ranged throughout the area on the East bank of the river because the West flooded every spring. Over the millennia they coalesced into "tribes" which began the civilization of the area. They discovered the game trails and used them for their travels throughout the area. They had a very obvious, though not generally thought about, problem; you could use the streams to get goods down to the "Great River"and trade, but you couldn't paddle upstream, they used the game trails to return back North to their homes (in fact the tribal centers were all located very near to what became the Trace. To the north of milepost 62 the dominant tribe was the Choctaw. South of them and extending their reach to the river were the"Natchez" (named so by the French). The Natchez became a highly developed and civilized (def.= permanently domiciled) tribe. They had a clear sense of property ownership, laws, and social propriety. So advanced were they that by the time the French arrived they had no warrior class because they had established long standing arrangements with the tribes surrounding them. They had great wealth. So wealthy, in fact, they became some of the most prolific mound builders in what is now the United States. (by the 1690s the Natchez were the only mound building society still existing in the U.S./Canada area) Mound building was a religious ritual, the building was done by members of the tribe not by slaves. Emerald Mound just a mile or so off the Trace is the second largest such structure in the country. By the time the Europeans arrived the Natchez had abandoned the Emerald Mound site and moved very close to the river (within the present Natchez city limits) to a site called "The Grand Village" (now a State Dept. of Archives and History Park).
About 1690 -
The coasts of America are being settled by Europeans, the Spanish on the Pacific and more actively the British on the Atlantic. The French , by now, confined their North American colonies to Canada. British colonialization had mostly ended its western movement. The major means of moving goods and material to ports for shipping was by barge on the rivers on the eastern coast and once they got to the Allegheny's the rivers ran the wrong way (into the vast uncharted wilderness) .
The French had come to realize that whatever nation got control of the Mississippi River would gain the real potential of North America. They began to search for a place to settle that would become the most powerful trading center on the continent. A site located as near as possible to the mouth of the Mississippi that also met two very important criteria: 1. A friendly tribe who could help them survive and 2. a way to get back to civilization after the long journey down the River. Natchez was the place.
