Episode 197 The Devil’s Road: Mounds and Murder on the Natchez Trace

Today, the Natchez Trace Parkway is a peaceful road through Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. But the old Trace was once known as the Devil’s Backbone, a dangerous route marked by robbery, murder and stories that became legend. In The Devil’s Road, a four-part October series, Southern Mysteries explores the darker history and folklore of the Natchez Trace. Part One begins at ancient Native American mound sites along the route and at Pharr Mounds in northern Mississippi, where a brutal murder in 1992 brought a much more recent story to this ancient landscape.

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Episode Sources

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “History & Culture.”

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “American Indian Mounds Along the Natchez Trace Parkway.”

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “Pharr Mounds, Milepost 286.7.”

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “Bynum Mounds, Milepost 232.4.”