Unfortunately, there will be no Natchez Trace location in 2024. Some of Tishomingo’s amenities are still catching up to pre-COVID days, so we’ll try again in 2025.
Camp 42 Natchez Trace takes place at Tishomingo State Park, just outside Tupelo, MS. Situated at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the park boasts some of Mississippi’s finest natural beauty. Campers will enjoy crossing the park’s signature swinging bridge, canoeing along Bear Creek, hiking along scenic trails complete with natural springs, fern-filled crevices, sandstone outcroppings, and of course, all the traditional activities that go along with exploring life, the universe, and everything!
Campers stay in climate-controlled cabins with attached bathrooms.
There is a rich history associated with the original Natchez Trace, from which Camp 42 Natchez Trace takes its name. Prehistoric bison and other large animals forging their way from the Mississippi River to the salt licks of what is now the Nashville area created a natural trace. Native Americans later used these paths and created settlements as part of the Mississippi Mound culture as early 2000 years ago, but there is archaeological evidence of paleo-Native Americans as early as 9000 years ago. Early European Americans used the trace as well. Before the invention of steamboats, boatmen from Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania would float their supplies down to Natchez, MS, and Louisiana disassemble and sell their boats for cash because it was too difficult to get it back upstream. They would then walk back home along the Natchez Trace. Eventually, the trace fell into disuse but is now commemorated by the modern National Park Service’s Natchez Trace Parkway which runs more or less along the original and connects Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS, including the northwest corner of Alabama in the process. The modern Parkway is just minutes from Tishomingo State Park, giving all campers a chance to enjoy this bit of history coming to and leaving camp.
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