Vicksburg, MS

There is alot of history in and around Vicksburg.  We left Red Bay, AL and drove the Natchez Trace Parkway most of the way to Vicksburg.  We checked into the Ameristar Casino RV park and spent a couple days exploring.  We could have spent a couple weeks and not have seen it all. 

The first place we found was the ruins of the historic Windsor House.

It was built before the Civil War by a wealthy cotton plantation owner who died shortly after it was completed.  It survived the war because General Sherman said it was too beautiful to burn!  They fired their own bricks with a kiln on the property.  All the pillars are brick construction and plastered over.  It caught fire and was destroyed in 1890.  They say the ghost of a union soldier is seen several times a year walking the grounds.


While we were driving nearby we saw a church with a steeple like I had never seen before.

A hand atop pointing to heaven.  It seems to have been rather common as we saw a number of old tombstones with the same hand on them.

Along the roadside on the Natchez Trace Parkway we saw a marker for the town of Rocky Springs.  We stopped and walked back into the woods and discovered the remains of where the town once stood.  Rocky Springs was a natural stopping off point for traders and trappers that traveled the Trace.  It had a flowing spring and the local residents raised cotton.  All that remains is the Methodist church built in 1837 and the cemetery along with some foundations for the buildings.

The cemetery shows signs of age and vandalism and tells some sad stories as well.