I love reading and learning about the history of our nation, especially the history of my home state of Mississippi. From the moment I could read independently, history was (and probably always will be) my first love of learning.
This weekend, I was reminded of that love as I traveled down the Natchez Trace with a grandchild in tow.
Admiring the colorful spring display of our state’s natural beauty, we discussed the various animals, trees, and plants we saw, even disagreeing about the names of a couple of roadside wildflowers.
Then, our grandson read the name of an upcoming visitor’s spot on the Trace. He laughed at its unusual spelling and wondered out loud where such a name came from in the first place.
Well, the grandma teacher in me collided with the inner history buff, and I preceded to give him an unsolicited lesson on that name and several others, many of which come from the various Mississippi Indian tribes that lived near the Natchez Trace or walked its path over the past 10,000 years.
We talked about how some of these places are not incorporated Mississippi towns, while some are still actual communities, and others, sadly, have been all but forgotten and erased from recent memories.
My grandson graciously listened until I ended our lesson by explaining that throughout my life, I have loved studying the names of all the cities, towns, and communities in Mississippi. Much to my amazement, he asked for more info.
I shared a few of the names of towns he knew, like Tupelo, which was supposedly named for the native tupelo tree. With the scientific name of Nyssa sylvatica, the tupelo tree was called the “ito opilwa,” or swamp tree, by the Creek Indians – a collective name for the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians that first populated the Natchez Trace.
Even those names, Chickasaw and Choctaw, have a specific and interesting linguistic history – as do places like Okolona, Biloxi, Bogue Chitto, Tishomingo, and dozens of other names of communities, towns, cities, counties, and even bodies of water within our state.
But some of our local places were named after famous people of that time, characters from history or literature, or people who lived in that Mississippi spot. Claiborne, Belzoni, and Betonia are examples of those people-centered names.
Other names of towns were inspired by places previously known or admired by early Mississippi citizens, such as Aberdeen and Troy. Still, other names came from nature specific to that location, such as Blue Mountain, Laurel, Alligator, and Artesia.
Perhaps the most interesting stories surrounding the names of Mississippi cities and towns are “accidental” names, misunderstood names, or names that evolved after a series of unusual events, such as Chunky and Panther Burn.
We often take many of those names and the stories behind them for granted. But my recent drive up the Trace reminded me that the only way that history will be remembered is if we take the time to learn it and pass it on to future generations.
So, I challenge you to take the time to learn the stories of your most cherished places in Mississippi. Then, take some extra time to share that history with someone else.
As President Harry Truman once stated, “The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.”
*Photos are courtesy of Wikimedia
