Natchez earned three more noteworthy feathers in the city’s highly plumed historic preservation hat recently.

The City of Natchez and local organizers earned praise and recognition from the Mississippi Heritage Trust.

The city received two awards from the organization.

The first honored the preservation efforts of the kitchen dependency at city-owned Auburn mansion.

The second award noted the engineering behind the Bridge of Sighs project on the Natchez bluff.

Auburn Antebellum Home, the non-profit group that leases the historic mansion from the city, also was honored for its efforts to support the Auburn site.

While the projects honored were not completed for the sole benefit of earning accolades, the recognition is certainly appreciated and deserving.

The honors underscore the importance of historic preservation matters that are often taken for granted in Natchez.

The hard work and constant vigilance required to protect our city’s precious historic structures and locations are invaluable to Natchez’s present and future.

Without continued, collective effort to keep historic preservation a front-burner issue, Natchez could be just another town instead of the historic jewel it is.

Many thanks to all of the efforts — those that earn awards and those that go mostly unnoticed — to keep Natchez special.