The animals at the Natchez-Adams County Humane Society need your help, and Historic Jefferson College has a fun (though somewhat challenging) way to do that!

We are teaming up again with the humane society this Saturday for our third annual 5K Trail Run for the Animals. It will utilize HJC’s nature trails and other property, which may be muddy and slippery, as well as steep and rugged — but isn’t that part of the fun?

You can help raise money for our humane society, and you get to experience nature first-hand. And don’t we all need a little more of that in our lives these days?

If you made a New Year’s resolution to “get fit,” this is your chance! For an added treat, this year we have blazed a new trail, just for the 5K, because we don’t want past runners to get bored with the same old course.
You may hear one of the five species of woodpeckers we have out here, or see a deer scrape on a sapling. Maybe you’ll spot an armadillo rustling through the leaves, or one of the raccoons or opossums that call our grounds home. In addition to animals, there are bubbling streams with bridges, St. Catherine Creek, a “two-man” cemetery, our beautiful little pond and gorgeous overlooks of deep ravines. You’ll get to run or walk along a path that is covered with fallen tulip poplar, oak and giant sycamore leaves, surrounded by evergreen magnolias, muscadine vines and American beech trees that keep their golden leaves through the winter.

You’ll also pass by unusual man-made things: a concrete “swimming” hole, deep in the woods, built for the cadets of Jefferson Military College 80 years ago; and the remains of Assembly Hall, where our state territorial legislators used to meet in the early 1800s. You’ll be winding around buildings built from 1819-1937, and along Old North Street, which was one of the original streets of Washington when it was laid out in 1794.

You’ll go under our massive live oaks that drip with Spanish moss, and pass a monument that commemorates when and where our state’s constitution was signed — right there on the grounds of Jefferson College — 200 years ago in 1817. Really, this is an experience which combines history and nature that should not be missed.

We are also in need of volunteers to help with this event. If you can man a water/direction station, or help with registration, time keeping or scoring, please let us know.

Since this is an event to benefit animals, please feel free to bring yours (on a leash), and let them experience the trail as well. One last thing — this event will go on, rain or shine, cold weather or warm, so dress accordingly.

The 5K Trail Run for the Animals will start at 10 a.m. Saturday. The registration fee is $25, and participants who register early will get a T-shirt.

Refreshments will follow the race, which is open to both walkers and runners. There will be awards given for first, second and third places for each running/walking age class, and all the four-legged companions get a special award, too.

For more information, contact Deanne Tanksley at deannetanksley@me.com and 601-807-2997 or Robin Person at info@historicjeffersoncollege.com and 662-515-0490. The registration form may also be downloaded from the HJC Facebook site.

Historic Jefferson College is a part of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and is located miles northeast of Natchez off U.S. 61 in the village of Washington.

Robin Person is the site director for Historic Jefferson College.