It's "Notchy Trace"

by F. L. Dennison with comment by H. D. Barry

Lexington Progress
June 3, 1938

To The Commercial Appeal:

In looking over the pictures in Sunday's (May 22) Commercial Appeal, taken in "Natchez" Trace Park, I am reminded of some history I know, with which, perhaps but few now living are acquainted.

T~ begin with, I, will say. that the park is badly misnamed and that those who named it were misled by the simularity in sound of two words that are not otherwise related.

My grandfather, Robert Dennison, of Henderson County, was no doubt one of the earliest settlers in this end of the state. As a boy, 60 years ago, I spent much time with him and hird his stories of bear and deer hunts and other such matters of a settler's life. Once I road with him over the old Lexington and Perryville road and about five miles east of Lexington, in the said hills, we crossed what appeared to be another old road or trail that wound around hills and hollows in a north-south direction. This he said was an old buffalo road, and was called the "Notchy" Trace." He said it was so called because of the scars or notches on the trees along the way which had been made by the buffalos whetting their horns as they passed along. He was an intelligent man and knew what he was talking about.

Just off the road on the south side of a hill was a deep depression that looked like an old pond gone dry, that he said was a buffalo wallow, made by their wallowing in the sand and carrying it away in their manes. I have also since learned that this wallowing habit is peculiar to the buffalo among the cow family.

Some time ago, I read in a number of the National Geographic magazine, which I do not have on hand, an article, in which the authority stated that a certain part of Indiana before the white man came, was vested yearly by vast herds of buffalo, which migrated to and from the prairie region of Northeast Mississippi.

Then I thought of my grandfather's story and of the "Notchy Trace" and of the buffalo wallow.

Natchez Trace Park is a misnomer, as sure as true history is true, and it is not yet too late to change the spelling and let it go down to posterity with the correct name.

Jackson and his heroes of New Orleans never saw the road unless they crossed in the North Mississippi.

F. L. DENNISON, Trenton, Tenn.

—In Commercial Appeal May 29.

* * *

For the information of Mr. Dennison, we wish to state that he is in error if he thinks that those responsible for naming of "Natchez Trace Park" were in ignorance, or did not know what they were doing when they gave the park its name. They knew that the Natchez Trace runs from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tenn.; that it crosses the Tennessee River near Pickwick, on through the hills and valleys and crosses No. 22-E about five or six miles from Hohenwald, in Lewis county, where sits the little monument in memory of Meriwether Lewis, the great trail blazer of his day.

They know further that this little park is the only national forest party on the Natchez Trace, and the naming of the park in Henderson, Carroll, Benton and Decatur counties, was in memory of the great trace, and nowhere in the literature has it every been stated that it was located on the Natchez Trace, but all visitors who are so fortunate to visit this great project are told that it is situated on the "Notchie" Trace, that makes its advent into Tennessee at the North Mississippi line and crosses the state into Kentucky, and on into Indiana.

The grandfather of F. L. Dennison, the late Robert Dennison, happened to be a great uncle of the writer and we are sure that he did not advise his grandson that a bunch of Jackson's men did not travel the "Notchy" Trace. Records are ample to prove the contention of the D.A.R., that such was the case.

Anyway, what does it matter. Natchez Trace Park, under the leadership of Mr. W. C. Kelly, is the greatest place in the state for recreation — and is growing greater in the hearts of the people.

H. D. BARRY.