Tag: Civil War

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Nashville to the Great Smoky Mountains

We knew we were headed across Tennessee to the Great Smoky Mountains, so we decided to head south in our hire car towards Chattanooga. There are several state parks in this area with waterfalls which we thought would be flowing after the rains here, so that’s the region we headed to.

First up, Dunbar Cave State Park, Clarksville. Although not a waterfall, it was a fascinating place with several miles of hiking trails. The cave is 8 miles (13kms) deep and until 2010, was open for tours. Archaeologists have dated artifacts and cave etchings found inside to between 1,000BC and 800 AD. It was a ceremonial space for Native Americans, mined for saltpeter for gunpowder during the Mexican American war, and after the Civil War, a two-story hotel was constructed. During the early 20th century it housed dances and concerts and in 1933 a swimming pool, bathhouse and tennis courts were built. By 1948 it was the venue for large music concerts by Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, but soon after in 1950, the hotel burned down and wasn’t rebuilt. The pool was closed in 1967 and the cave was purchased in 1973 and dedicated as a Natural State Park.

This is what remains of the cave that once saw so much activity.

The hike through the park was very pretty. Especially because we got to see an elk that was as interested to watch us, as we were to watch him.

As we’d come to expect here, the all foliage was a vibrant green.

Our hike finished with a walk around the lake and then it was on to Paris Landing State Park and a surprising find. Not only did we see our first woodpecker, we discovered they take in injured raptors that can’t be released. We often hear woodpeckers tapping at the trees but have not seen one ’til now.

Being a Saturday, were also lucky to catch the the Raptor feeding and park ranger’s talk about their current inhabitants.

We’d already visited the Parthenon in Nashville, so why not visit the Eiffel Tower in? Where would you expect to find it? Paris, of course! It’s 66 feet tall and was created as a university project. The Paris Chamber of Commerce installed it as a tourist attraction in 1991 after they celebrated “Paris USA”.

The town of Paris was quite lovely, with a large town square, ornate government buildings and a different take on their murals. Each one depicts an historical event that took place in the county.

Created to recognise entertainment in the region, it depicts several different activities and also local identities.

This is called “Journey Through Time” and depicts the importance of the railroad from the 1800s to “today.” According to the explanation, many local identities are also pictured here.

The note on this one just says 200 people and places.

Call me macabre but this one intrigued me. It’s not the sort of mural we usually see. It depicts a duel between Will Edmunds and Kenny Porter, the Governor’s son, on June 4, 1888. Edmunds was killed. Later the same day, Porter’s brother, Dudley was also killed in a duel by Alex White, after an argument about the earlier duel. In 1889, Kenny married Nell Edmunds, Will’s sister. Go figure!

Entitled “The Ring” This shows a jeweler making a ring for John Dewit Atkins and his fiancé Ella Gilbert, who wed in 1890. They are in the background, with some of the buildings in the town square.

The Eiffel Tower reproduction is a centrepiece of the town. However, it was now past 4pm and dark black clouds were settling in overhead so it was time to head back to Joey.

We had a thunderstorm overnight but when Sunday morning arrived, it was a clear, warm day so off we headed for part two of our sojourn without Joey.

I started the day with a very photogenic squirrel having breakfast.

They’re just so cute!

Today, we’d planned our waterfall route, The first stop, Old Stone Fort.

The fort, misnamed by explorers, is a prehistoric structure, dated from between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago and it’s not clear why it was constructed. The surrounding area is quite beautiful and well worth the hike.

For the rivers and waterfalls, and also the small things, like this fungus

The purple edges were almost glowing.

This one, that resembled the rings of a tree.

And these flowers which were quite tiny but in abundance on the trees and covering the ground, like confetti after the rain.

The first falls we passed were Blue Hole Falls, there was a lot of water rushing down but they weren’t high falls. This, was called Big falls and there certainly was huge volumes of water flowing over.

As we continued on, we passed the ruins of the Stone Fort Paper Company.

We ended our hike here, now on to Greeter Falls and the Blue Hole Trail.

Another beautiful hike through green forests, rock ledges, and water falls.

These falls too, were flowing at a great rate.

One of the things we love about our travels is that we haven’t been here before, so we have no idea what to expect. Every corner we turn or hill we climb reveals a new outlook. In this case, steep and very slippery steps followed by a slippery spiral staircase.

The first cascade was a teaser for this higher, more voluminous waterfall.

While it’s great to appreciate the impressive trees and waterfalls etc. I also love find those little, hidden gems along the trails, like these fungi.

While hiking along the trail, we met another couple and I notices she was taking photos of a group of fungus too. I pointed out the ones I’d photographed and we struck up a conversation, as we’re prone to do. They were interested to hear about our trip so far and our future plans and we were interested to pick their brain about other places to visit that they’d recommend. We must have stood on the trail and chatted for 20 minutes or more before we agreed we should continue our hike. So, when we arrived at the swing bridge we took each others pictures.

This trail was little more precarious, and making sure we were very sure footed. One slip and we’d be very, very wet.

There were a few cars in the carp park but we hadn’t come across anybody else, until we came to this end of the trail. There were a bunch of very tired and muddy teenagers with digging tools, ropes and other implements that I would not have wanted to carry along the trail. They were Eagle Scouts apparently, doing 5 weeks of weekend restoration work on the trail and the swing bridge to make it safer for hikers.

These guys were manhandling a very large rock along this slippery and very uneven slope to shore up the steps onto the swing bridge. Rather them than me!

Generally, I’m a big fan of a ring or loop hike. There’s always something new to see, no retracing your path. But, I also see the advantage of turning around at the end and walking back the way you came, which was the case here. Often we’ll see things we missed on the way out or get a better view. And often, I take just as many photos on the way back!

By the time we got back to Joey it was after 4pm and time to head on back. we’d meandered out along a scenic drive, taking advantage of the car and it’s frugal use of petrol, but now we had a two hour trip back to Joey.

We had the car until after lunch on Monday so planned a morning of activities. The mechanic was chasing up our part and he was confident he’d have us running again by lunch time.

We’d seen a large warehouse on our trips along the road the mechanic was on, called Lane Motor Museum, so we thought, lets give it a go for an hour. It opened in 2003 with the mission “to collect, preserve, document, and interpret an eclectic and technically interesting collection of cars or other transportation-related objects.” This was a passion project for Jeff Lane which began as a hobby, (don’t they all) and grew to a collection of over 500 vehicles. And he’s still collecting! Needless to say, our hour turned into all morning.

Every vehicle and each story attached to the vehicle was unique and fascinating and we couldn’t help being wowed!

As you can see, this was not your run-of-the-mill car museum.

Most of these vehicles were in running order, including this one which was demonstrated working.

The vehicles in the collection also spanned many decades, from the late 1800s to this one from 1984, and others more recent.

For almost every vehicle, we found the information fascinating and worth reading.

There were also weird gadgets, like this ThermaDor Car Cooler, or car air-conditioner.

Something we noticed was how many three-wheeled vehicles were on display, considering they never seemed to make a lasting impression. Even as recently as this 2020 model.

And then there are experimental ideas like this one.

Scams were also represented, like this endeavour by Glen Gordon Davis.

Can you imagine driving down the street in this little beauty?

This little car would suit anyone needing to get into a tight space, or who has difficulty parking.

If in doubt, just pick it up and move it.

You can see why found ourselves wandering around the museum for hours.

And i thought electric cars were a recent invention.

Skiing anyone?

The warehouse was packed with these vehicles, so much so that there were even some in the outside parking shed.

We spent a good 3 – 4 hours here and it was well worth the $10 each to get in.

We’d hoped to be on our way after lunch but it seems the part we needed was harder to source than anyone imagined. By the time we’d returned our rental car and got back to the mechanic however, he finally had some good news. They’d found not one, but two parts, so we now have a spare in case we need to replace the other one. We’d be headed off by lunch time Tuesday and on our way to the Great Smoky Mountains.

After touring through Carlsbad Caverns, we’ve bypassed any other caves because really, nothing could live up to their size or grandeur. However, we did decide make an exception to detour past The Lost Sea Cave. Located in Sweetwater, Tennessee, local information claims it is the world’s largest underground lake and is part of an larger system of caves called Craighead Caverns. However, the Guinness Book records it as America’s largest underground lake. It also has the very rare anthodite (cave flower) formations, and fossils from the giant Pleisocene jaguar have also been located in the cave.

This is the cave entrance tunnel and in itself, leads you to think you’re embarking on a great adventure. So, down we all trundled, into the dim cave light and were, well, underwhelmed. We couldn’t help comparing it to Carlsbad.

However, the history was quite interesting. During the Civil War, it was mined for saltpeter, necessary to manufacture gunpowder and there is graffiti etched on the wall which is scientifically dated and proved to be authentic from this period.

The cave was discovered in 1905 by a 13 year old boy named Ben Sands who crawled through a tiny space to reveal a large room filled with water.

These were the anthodite (cave flower) formations, quite small and not very many. They did appear crystaline and the greenish colour was not due to the light.

This was our first glimpse of the underground lake. Similarly to other caves with pools of water, it was crystal clear and still.

As we descended, we walked from the path to a tunnel, of sorts, with raised iron sides, to keep the water out.

This picture gives an accurate representation of the the light and how we viewed it. Then…

Another wow moment! This was not what we expected. And there were fish!

The water was so clear that the fish looked suspended above the bottom. We all climbed into a boat, like long raft with sides and sat along the middle facing outwards.

More fish! Wow! And then our guide explained that in the 1960s, the rainbow trout were introduced into the water. It’s so pristine that there is nothing for them to eat so each guided boat ride, the guides throw fish feed to them. This would be why they all come swimming up to the boats. Once the food is gone they disappear off.

The boats have small electric motors that are basically silent, so it’s quite eerie as you float around because it doesn’t look like you’re in the water, but you’re floating. We did a lap of the lake while hearing about the history and learning some facts about the water. The cavern is 800 feet x 220 feet but the full extent of its size still isn’t determined, despite modern diving expeditions with exploration and sonar equipment. Over 13 acres of water have been mapped to date, with no sign of the caverns underwater end.

We floated around the edge of the lake for about 10 – 15 minutes, then disembarked and made our way back up to the exit.

The tour lasted about 45 minutes and the cave trail was 3/4 mile long. Was it worth it for the cave? No, but the history was interesting and the lake was amazing and well worth the visit.

But, now it was time to get a wriggle on to the Smoky Mountains.

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New Orleans to Baton Rouge the Plantations

We’d already discovered that there are about 70 plantation homes along the Louisiana Scenic route road, and a dozen that offer tours. We chose three that have different histories to Southdown Manor in Houma and learned a lot about the sugar plantations, the mansions, and the people who lived and worked there. Along the route we were very surprised to see how much water lay on either side of the roads. There were many, many, miles of swamps and effectively, unusable land.

Destrehan, the closest to New Orleans, is also the oldest plantation in the Mississippi Valley. We were greeted with a very warm and humid day and by staff and guides in traditional period costume, complete with petticoats and hoops. Wonderful when in the air conditioning of the gift shop. Not so, walking around in the heat and humidity. We were the first to arrive so had time to have a lovely chat with the guides who were very happy to pose for pictures.

The history of Destrehan begins with Jean Baptiste Honore Detrehan Sieur De Peaupre (1716-1765), an obvious Frenchman whose father was a counselor to King Louis XIV. He arrived in Louisiana and in 1745 married Catherine de Gauvry, moved into her family home and together had 7 children. After his death, Jean Baptiste’s youngest two sons moved in with their elder sister and her sugar plantation owners husband, Etienne DeBore. In 1776 Etienne bought them their own plantation with their inheritance and ten years later, the youngest, Jean Noel married Celeste Robin de Longny. Her father contracted Charles Paquet, a mulatto slave (someone with African and European ancestry) and master builder to construct a French Colonial style house which began in 1787. This would be Destrehan.

Charles Paquet

The plan of the house and the contract

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and like many of the plantations, it moved from growing indigo to sugar, becoming the top sugar producing plantation in the region. As one of the wealthiest and influential plantation owners, Jean Noel was appointed to the Orleans Territorial Council, tasked with creating Louisiana’s government. They take great pride in showcasing the original document signed by Jean Noel, President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison (who would become the fourth US president). It’s kept in a dimmed room below the house in a climate controlled, sealed case. No photos allowed!

Sugar production was also much more labour intensive than indigo, requiring double the manpower. Destrehan’s slave population grew from 49 to 100 with the change to sugar and by 1861, managed over 200 slaves. The dwellings they called home were very much different to the opulence of the manor and several slave dwellings have been relocated from the plantation to the grounds.

These divided cabins would have housed two families with two rooms each. One as a kitchen, sitting room and bedroom and the other, a second bedroom. There was one chimney in the centre with a fireplace in each side and timber shutters covered the windows. Bedding was stuffed with the Spanish moss we’d learned about earlier and while this house displayed an original bed, because the inhabitant was capable of making it, most slaves slept on the floors and they were often dirt, not brick as this depicts.

The list on the wall details the name of every man, woman and child slave on the property, in the hope that their contribution to Louisiana’s history is forgotten.

Our guide regaled us with interesting stories about the house and its inhabitants, including a period tea box complete with a block of tea. No tea bags or even loose leaf tea here! It weighed about 1 lb. or 1/2 kilo and you broke a small piece off to steep in boiling water in a tea pot.

We learned about Marguerite, a slave who was purchased with her two children as the plantation cook and laundress and how formal and tedious the cooking and provision of meals was for the family. As is routine for this era manor, the kitchen was a separate building away from the house. Firstly, to stave off any fires destroying the house and secondly, because it was considered extremely gauche to have cooking smells wafting around the manor. Once cooked, the food was carried to the butlers pantry (a room making a resurgence today to keep the mess from cooking hidden away) in the house and kept warm over coals. Meals were traditionally many courses which only the adults eating at the dining table. The children ate in a separate room next to the butlers pantry and were then whisked away by childminding slaves.

It was Marguerite’s job to tend to the whim’s of the family. She was the chief cook and the one who was present at the dining table. She delivered the food, and cleared the table after each course. That required removing every piece of tableware, cutlery, plates, glasses etc. and removing the top tablecloth to reveal a fresh, crisp tablecloth underneath. Then the table was reset for the next course. There were numerous courses, sometimes, as many as 7 so that’s seven times this ritual was performed for every dinner. The meals were often sumptuous displays of the wealth of the household, including “meat, fish and fowl,” breads, cheese, freshly churned butter and cream, fresh vegetables and fruits picked form the kitchen garden. Imagine completing this task for breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week, sometimes for many extra guests, and having to wash all of these extra table cloths and dishes ready for the following day. Not to mention, preparing and cooking the food in the first place. Marguerite, and her children remained slaves during their lives.

Our guide then took us upstairs to a loft room which shows how the house was built and explained details of its building. It measures 60 ft. x 35 ft. and is surrounded by a 12 ft. balustrade gallery. The house was completed in 1790 with a double-pitched roof and using Louisiana Cypress, which, due to its ability to survive and thrive in swampy conditions, makes it incredibly hard wearing and durable and not subject to the wood rot that infects other timbers. It is one reason why so many of these plantation homes remain in such good condition.

Our tour completed, we were free to wander around the grounds, read the information in the slave dwellings about their lives and enjoy the shade of the 200+ year old oak trees.

I couldn’t resist this little fellow, considering he posed so nicely!

Next up, a trip over the mighty Mississippi river to Laura Plantation and the story of a Louisiana Creole family.

This house and the tour are unique because Laura actually lived in the house and wrote her memoirs in her later life, entitled Memories of the Old Plantation Home & A Creole Family Album and written by Laura Locoul Gore in 1936. Of course, we are relying on her memories of events, written many decades after they occurred, but it still gives a different insight into life at this plantation, especially considering its female biases.

We were on the last tour of the day and again, were the only two, so were able to ask numerous questions. I wondered if we received more candid answers than during the Destrehan tour when we were tacked onto a bus group of about 20 people.

The 12,000 acres which comprised the Laura plantation was amassed by Guillaume Dupare by 1804 and the homestead completed in 11 months. It is raised off the ground on brick columns which created a large underground cellar.

Louisiana Cypress made the structure and it was bricked and plastered inside and stuccoed and painted outside. The house was 24,000 square feet and the separate kitchen another 2,500 ft. The house served as a business headquarters and a venue for large and lavish parties and social gatherings.

Four generations of Locoul’s lived at Laura, who was herself born on the plantation in 1861. But much of her life was spent among various other homes in New Orleans’ French Quarter. In fact, she moved away from the plantation in 1891 when she married Charles Gore, living in his home town St Louis, Missouri. It is because of the manuscript she penned, which wasn’t discovered until 1993, well after her death, that the history of the plantation is so detailed.

After Guillaume’s death in 1808, his wife Nanette Prud’homme ran the manor and the plantation and was the first of four generations of women to manage the plantation. Laura’s grandmother Elizabeth, also outlived her husband and ran the plantation for a further 47 years. She left the property to her son Emile (Laura’s father) and her daughter Aimee. She returned to France having no inclination to run the plantation and Emile renamed it after his daughter Laura. Upon her departure in 1892, it was a condition of the sale that the business remain known as the Laura Plantation.

While we visited the “big house” much of the tour revolved around the slaves and their stories, as remembered by Laura in her memoir.

The four remaining slave cabins are original and were build during the 1840s. By the civil war era, the 1860s, there were 185 slaves that lived and worked on the plantation. When the emancipation was signed in 1866, the majority of slaves remained and continued living in these cabins. Some of their descendants still lived in those cabins until 1977.

The first register of slaves was undertaken in 1808 and there are 17 names on the inventory. Some were born slaves in Louisiana but there are also 5 other African nationalities listed. The inventory provides a name, age if known, skill set and cost of purchase. Historians have pieced together the lives of some of these slaves and in conjunction with Laura’s memoir, their stories are recorded.

Betsey was 29 years old, 5′ 2 1/2″ tall and bought for $550 in 1824. She came from St. Dominigue (now Haiti) and she was a washerwoman, cook and seamstress. It’s assumed her work a a domestic was not suitable because in 1826 she was sold on to his mother-in-law, Nanette Dupare for $600 as only “fit for the field.”

Cyrus Denelin was a “good blacksmith.” Consequently, he was the most expensive slave purchased by the plantation. He was purchased in 1840 at the age of 24 for $2,000. After the civil war, Cyrus started his own successful blacksmith shop and Raymond Locoult was a witness to his marriage.

Sam O’Brien, 23 years old, and 5′ 9″ was sold to Nanette Prudhomme Duparc for $825. he spoke English and struggled on the French-speaking plantation. He escaped but was caught and branded with VDR (referring to his owner) after a poster advertising a $10 reward was published in 1824. He then remained on the plantation and was listed on subsequent inventories in 1829, 1852, 1855 and 1860, but without an occupation. Considering his worth was listed as only $300 in 1852 it is assumed he was a field or menial worker. A plantation journal of 1864 records his death of smallpox.

After three tours around very different plantation homes, we were amassing knowledge of life on the plantation for both the owners and the slaves and it was clear how very different their lives were. Although some slaves were able to manumit from slavery, their lives were manifestly different from the privileged few who owned and lived in the “big houses.”

The last antebellum plantation mansion we visited was Nottoway, an imposing Greek revival/Italian style built for John Hampton Randolph (of THE Randolph’s) in 1859. 

Today, it is a resort venue for weddings, and conferences.  It has 2 restaurants and the bedrooms in the house have had modern ensuites added and are used for accommodation.  There are extensive gardens, beautiful trees, a pool, games room, tennis courts and gym, many utilising the existing buildings.

Our tour was of the main plantation manor and again, we were the only visitors.  The land Nottoway sits on had been a tobacco plantation from 1718 operating with 17 slaves.  John Hampton Randolph arrived in Mississippi in 1820 with his family because his father was appointed as a federal judge by President Monroe.  He married Emily Jane Liddell in 1837 and together they had 11 children.  John realised how lucrative sugar had become, so to increase his wealth, in 1842 he moved his family to Louisiana, bought 1,650 acres of land that would become Nottoway and where cotton had replaced tobacco, replanted sugar cane.  He built a sugar mill in 1844 and tripled his income.  By 1854 he had acquired 7,116 acres of land and managed 176 slaves.  In 1855 he added to his holding with an additional 400 acres of Mississippi river frontage and had the house built, naming it Nottoway after the county in Virginia where he was born.

Similarly to the other manors we’d visited, cypress logs were used extensively throughout the house.  After felling we learned they were cured in the river for 6 years and then dried.  The bricks used were hand made by slaves on the property and 40 carpenters, masons and plumbers were hired.  The house was completed in 1859.  By 1860 they had also built 42 slave cabins, a bathhouse, hospital, schoolhouse, greenhouse, stable and added a steam-powered sugar mill and meeting house which was also used as a creche to mind slaves’ children while they worked.

When the American Civil War began, John’s 3 eldest sons left to fight for the Confederates and as the fighting neared Nottoway, he moved 200 slaves to Texas to grow cotton while his wife and the youngest children remained behind in the hope that this might save it from being ravaged during the war.  His plan worked, because although some of the grounds and buildings were damaged, the manor was spared.  The only damage Nottoway received was a canon ball shot that became embedded in a front pillar and remained there until 1971 when it fell out.

When the war concluded, he returned to Nottoway with most of his slaves who had few other choices for work but by 1875, with sugar cane losing value, he reduced his land holding to 800 acres.  He died at the property in 1883 and his wife Emily, sold the plantation in 1889, dividing the $50,000 received between her 9 remaining children.  She died in Baton Rouge in 1904.  The property then changed hands several times, until the most recent inhabitants, Stanford and Odessa Owen.  They resided in Nottoway from 1949 until he died in 1974.  In 1980 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places but unable to maintain the extensive house and grounds, Odessa sold the plantation to Arlin Dease with the stipulation that she be able to reside in the house until her death.  When she died in 2003, Dease restored Nottoway then sold it to Australian health care billionaire Paul Ramsay in 1985 for $4.5 million.  It was Ramsay who spent in excess of $15 million converting it into property to the resort destination we see today.

The interior was incredibly opulent with period antique furniture and fittings.  Even the guest bedrooms had the traditional 4 poster beds.

At the conclusion of the hour-long tour, we were able to wander around the grounds at our leisure, and we didn’t see another sole.

Continuing along our roads less travelled, we followed the Mississippi river, arriving at Donaldsonville (there are a lot of towns whose names end in “ville”). Where we had an interesting walk around the town.  We learned that they were Confederates during the war and like many of the small towns we’ve visited, they are proud of their history and their town.

The church was quite beautiful. Founded in 1772, on orders by King Charles III of Spain, the first stones were laid in 1876 but it wasn’t completed for 20 years.

We wandered around the crypts and tombs in the cemetery noting that they, too were all above ground.

We had parked a distance from the main town and walked through the suburbs, new and old to reach the town centre. On the way back I couldn’t resist taking snaps of this interesting domicile.

We guessed this was their security device.

We had one last stop on our journey through Louisiana. Baton Rouge and the state capital building.

As we drove in, we passed one of the 29 locks of the upper Mississippi River, the Port Allen lock. It is the largest free-floating lock of its kind and also one of the busiest.

We drove over the Huey P. Long bridge, opened in 1935 to commemorate the Governor, who was also assassinated in the same year.

We headed for the CBD and the State Capitol Building which is situated among beautiful parklands adjacent the Mississippi River.  They also have the most adorable squirrels and this one posed every so nicely for his photo.

They also have, as we’ve discovered at each of the State Capital buildings we’ve visited, a replica Liberty bell.

The capital building is 137 meters tall with 34 stories. Two separate lifts whisk visitors up 27 floors to an observation deck with 360-degree views of the city.

We were also able to wander around and enjoy the grandeur of the halls of power, so to speak.

Including the Senate chamber that was in session but had broken for lunch.

Our last stop in Louisiana was the historic town of Natchez. Settled by the French in 1716 it is the oldest non-native settled region on the Mississippi River and where we picked up the Natchez Trace Parkway, all the way to Nashville, Tennessee.