There’s a lot of back-and-forth lately about Ronald Reagan’s speech in Neshoba County, complete with Paul Krugman using McCarthyistic smear tactics slightly modified from the 1950s. I have nothing to contribute to the debate, but it reminded me that my wife and I did visit Neshoba County ourselves last year. It was our first trip to the south outside of a drive to Atlanta in 1993.
I had planned to bicycle there, and still wish I had had time to do so. I was more-or-less following the trail that Tecumseh took on his recruiting mission to the Creeks in 1811. I started my ride from Vincennes in late March 2006, crossed the Ohio River on the ferry at Cave-in-Rock, and then rode on the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky and Tennessee. I spent part of one day on the Natchez Trace trail, which took me into Alabama.
I had planned to follow the Natzhez Trace to Tupelo, MS, then take back roads to some of the sites where Tecumseh tried to recruit Choctaw people to his cause (without success). But I had been battling headwinds for several days, the Natchez Trace was boring, and I was running out of time. My main destination was Tuckabatchee, near Montgomery, Alabama, where I wanted to spend several days. So we put the bicycle on top of the car, drove the Trace to Tupelo where we hunted down a good book of maps of rural Mississippi, and drove to some of the sites instead.
By the time we got to Neshoba County, it was getting late — too late to visit any of the Choctaw sites there. We got a quick meal in Philadelphia, and then drove to Selma, Alabama. The next day I resumed riding. In part I followed the trail of the Civil Rights marchers to Montgomery, but my main interest was some War of 1812 sites along the Alabama River. My wife spent some of her time in Selma, visiting sites of the Civil Rights marches.
But before that, on our way from Tupelo to Neshoba County, we did stop at a Tecumseh site near Crawford. Here are a couple of photos from Crawford.
I don’t know what this building was, but it got my attention. The site of the Tecumseh meeting was a few miles out of town along the road shown here.
I didn’t take a single photo in Neshoba County. But I did take this one just on the northeast border, of the Nanih-Wayia mound. A few young people of Choctaw descent were there, too, in a park on the near side of the road, learning about their heritage.
I wouldn’t mind going back there someday for more riding. The rural roads looked bicycle friendly, and I would have taken more and better photos if I had been on my bicycle.