Natchez Trace in "A Name for the City" (Location)

The "Natchez Trace" (201) was a 440-mile trail through the wilderness originally created by Indians between Nashville, Tennessee, and Natchez, Mississippi. It linked three rivers - the Cumberland, the Tennessee and the Mississippi. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it served as a major overland route for traders and settlers. Historically, it passed through northeast Mississippi to the east of Oxford; in the story the settlement is located "about midway between" the Mississippi River to the west and "the Trace" to the east (201). Although in the story the "special horseman" who carries the mail between the settlement and Nashville rides up and down it "every two weeks" with a kind of impunity (202), it is described as a lawless "region where for no more than the boots on his feet, men would murder a traveler" (204). The story's outlaw gang is identified as "Natchez Trace bandits" (201).