Today, Natchez turns 298 years old — so we have only two years to go until we reach the “Tricentennial” milepost in 2016.

With Jennifer Ogden Combs at the helm as our Tricentennial Executive Director, Natchez is planning a very big year for locals and for visitors, so please join in the fun and come by her office upstairs at the Natchez Visitor Center to share your own great ideas.

Plans for our Tricentennial will highlight 300 years of fascinating Natchez history. They will celebrate the cultural melting pot that we are today, and will showcase how tomorrow’s Natchezians are envisioning their future city.

Really, the Tricentennial story starts in 1714, when the French set up a post for trading for whitetail deerskins on the east bank of the Mississippi River among Indian settlements whose culture was centered at the mound group now known as the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians.

To protect their trading interests against intrusions from the British colonies along the East Coast, the French planned a series of forts throughout the eastern portion of the Louisiana colony from the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to modern-day Canada.

On the bluff above the landing here, they built a 4-sided wood palisade fort with several structures to house soldiers, munitions and other supplies. Natchez Indians supplied wooden materials and labor for the fort construction.

On Aug. 3, 1716, Fort Rosalie was completed, named for the wife of the French Minister of the Navy.  From this date the City of Natchez will mark its 300th birthday in 2016 as the oldest permanent European settlement on the Mississippi River — two years older than New Orleans.

The Fort Rosalie site was deemed significant enough to become part of a national park because creation of a French fort at “Natchez” led to the laying out of a Spanish town nearby that then became the capital of a United States territory, and, ultimately, first capital of the State of Mississippi.

The grand opening of the Fort Rosalie site on our 300th birthday will play an integral part in the festivities that are being planned for 2016 and will also help celebrate the 100th birthday of the National Park Service.

We plan to mark the occasion with a ribbon-cutting that will kick off a multi-day cultural festival to showcase our rich ethnic heritage that will offer something for everyone.

The new site will include exhibits that tell the story of how the American Indians, Europeans, and Africans interrelated during the Colonial era in the lower Mississippi Valley.

It will feature public recreational opportunities like a picnic area and walking trails with a spectacular view of the Mississippi River.

A major public kick-off event for the Natchez Tricentennial is currently being planned for later this fall — stay tuned for more information.

 

Kathleen McClain Jenkins is Superintendent of Natchez National Historical Park. She can be reached at 601-442-7049 extension 13 or at kathleen_jenkins@nps.gov.