Twentymile Bottom information panel (click to enlarge)

Traveling on the Natchez Trace was dangerous business. Before steam engines, cargo boat owners floated down the Mississippi River but could not travel back upriver against the current. Because of this, they sold their boats for scrap, got paid, and walked over 400 miles back to Nashville, the closest major city to Natchez and New Orleans, their coastal destinations.

As you can imagine, a lone man with money in his pocket was easy pickin’s for bandits and unfriendly Indians. However, the trouble did not stop there. Travelers on the Natchez Trace had to brave heat, mosquitoes and other bugs, and the swamps where poisonous snakes and dangerous animals lived. Most men formed groups for protection against the bandits and Indians, but this was no help against the natural elements.

Wetlands, swamps, streams, and rivers populated the lower regions along the Natchez Trace. The “bottom” that Twentymile Bottom refers to is one such wetland. Today it has been drained and is now cultivated land. The overlook is pretty much overgrown, and even if it wasn’t, what you can see is not that interesting, so there is no reason to stop here.

RV owners and those pulling trailers are not allowed at Twentymile Bottom. The overlook is at the end of a road that branches off of the Natchez Trace Parkway, and there is no loop at the end, so you must back up and turn around to leave.