Phosphate Mine stop on the Natchez Trace Parkway
A .2-mile round-trip trail at the Phosphate Mine stop on the Natchez Trace Parkway takes visitors past a series of actual mine shafts located on a hill above the trail. Most are now filled in with dirt and have openings that are way too small for anyone to fit into, except for the very last one. However, I do not suggest entering the mine because while you can get in, you might not be coming out. Do climb up the hill, but just look inside (though there is nothing much to see).
Collapsed and filled mine shaft at the Phosphate Mine stop on the Natchez Trace Parkway
Last mine shaft is open enough for an adult to climb in (not recommended)
The trail that leads to the phosphate mines is slightly sunken into the ground and can be mistaken for an original segment of the Natchez Trace, but it is actually an old, narrow gauge railroad bed. To move the product from the mines, the phosphate was loaded directly into pushcarts and pulled along tracks by small train engines known as “Dinky” engines.
Dinky railroad bed
Phosphate is an ingredient used in products such as paint, ceramics, fire-retardants, polishes and cleaners, food processing, pharmaceuticals, personal hygiene products, and fertilizers. It was fertilizer that originally drove the market back in the 1880s. The mines closed when the phosphate source was exhausted.
Allow ten minutes to hike the trail and check out the mines.
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Last updated on November 29, 2021
