Old Natchez Trace

He decided to make the journey overland.

There were several routes he could have taken, but he chose the Natchez Trace, a curious choice as it was infamous for bandits and harsh terrain.

On October 10, he stopped in the middle of nowhere, a ramshackle inn called Grinder's Later, one of Lewis's companions would testify that during this journey, Lewis's mind seemed to be disturbed.

Mrs. Grinder would later confirm this, saying Lewis spent much of the time under her roof pacing back and forth and talking to himself.

Even his fellow explorer William Clark said that, quote, I fear the weight of his mind has overcome him, unquote.

But soon after, there were doubts.

Knowing the reputation of the Natchez Trace, some believed he could have been the victim of a robbery.

He was known to have left on his travels with $120, a huge sum at the time, but that money was never found on him or among his possessions.

The fort's commander later reported that Lewis had arrived in a disturbed state and had tried to kill himself twice on the way downriver.

On the evening of October 10th, he stopped at Grinder's Stand, a rough, isolated inn along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee.

Before dawn, gunshots rang out, and by the next morning, the 35-year-old explorer was dead.

Both Thomas Jefferson and William Clark ultimately accepted that their brilliant, tormented friend had taken his own life, a conclusion most historians still share.

The grave itself is marked by a stone pillar erected by the state of Tennessee in 1848 and intentionally shaped as a broken column, a stark emblem of a monumental life cut off long before its natural conclusion.

It is easy to see how the legends of murder took root on this particular road.

A decade earlier, the Natchez Trace had earned a fearsome reputation thanks to outlaws like the Hart brothers and Samuel Mason, who robbed and butchered travellers carrying home their profits from New Orleans, turning a vital corridor of commerce into a theatre of unspeakable savagery and blood.

On the other hand, they enjoyed a very flexible work-from-home schedule, since the office was wherever the road happened to be.

That reminds me so much.

You can almost throw a rock and hit this spot on the Natchez Trace.

It's not that far from where we live.

And they call it the witch's dance.

For more than 200 years, an old tavern in Natchez, Mississippi has stood through changes that transformed the town around it.

It was once a place where travelers stopped before setting out along the Natchez Trace.

Later, it became a family home, passing from one generation to the next.

Over the years, unsettling stories became attached to the building.

Welcome to Southern Mysteries, exploring Southern history and true crime.

I'm your host, Shannon Ballard.

This is episode 200, Murder and Haunting at King's Tavern, fourth and final part of my October series, The Devil's Road, Stories of the Natchez Trace.

On Jefferson Street in Natchez, Mississippi, there's an old wooden building not far from the Mississippi River.

um, the Mississippi blues trail.

Um, and then like the Natchez trace and just see if, if, uh, you know, get the ride in itself, but then stop at several of those places and, and, or stop it as many of them as I could and share those stories and, uh, see if there's any paranormal activity along the way.

Wow.

Sounds like a lot of fun.

Also on this list, we've got a great place.

I mean, just breakfast alone, I know they're open for breakfast, but the Loveless Cafe just off of Highway 100 where the Natchez Trace kinda comes to an end in the Middle Tennessee area, that is a delicious place.

You cannot go wrong in the Nashville area if you are able to stop by the Loveless Cafe, Cafe.

In New Orleans, Commander's Palace, a, a legendary place.

At milepost 54.8 on the Natchez Trace Parkway, a trail leaves the modern road and enters the woods, leading toward what used to be Rocky Springs, Mississippi.

There are no streets lined with abandoned houses or empty storefronts.

Most of the town is gone.

This is episode 199, The Ghost Town of Rocky Springs.

It's part three of the October series, The Devil's Road, Stories of the Neches Trace.

For the first two parts of The Devil's Road, we followed the people who traveled the Old Natchez Trace and the men who preyed on them.

But the trace wasn't a long stretch of isolated road.

Along the way were places where travelers could find water, food, and shelter.

And does that chord progression actually sound like one of my chord progressions? Yeah.

Natchez Trace, I wrote at least half of.

But

I wasn't about, oh, look at me.