Contact: Bob Ratliff
The Great River Road, an asphalt artery winding through America's heartland in the shadow of the Mississippi River, is getting special attention these days from Mississippi State University historians, archaeologists and social scientists.
The state Department of Transportation is funding a $210,000 research project that will help visitors better understand the roadway's areas within the Magnolia State.
"We are doing an archeological and historical survey of sites of interest," said MSU history department head Charles D. Lowery. "The result will be recommendations for new tourist centers, historical markers and other improvements to provide a better understanding of the history and archaeology of the route."
A patchwork of federal, state and local routes, the Great River Road snakes through forests, swamps and small towns, paralleling the river--sometimes at stretches of 20 miles--from its headwaters near the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. Often confusing to motorists, the highway includes sections simultaneously claiming Great River Road status on the east and west sides of the river--among them, stretches of U.S. highways 65 and 61 in Arkansas and Mississippi, respectively.
Lowery said the federal government has studied various proposals since the 1930s to give the highway a uniform distinction similar to the federal Blue Ridge or Natchez Trace parkways.
"Unfortunately, Congress never appropriated any funds for that purpose, so the Great River Road today is a series of different roads rather than one continuous highway," he added.
In addition to Lowery, the Mississippi State team includes research scientist Jay Ritchie of the Social Science Research Center and John W. O'Hear, the Cobb Institute of Archaeology's curator of research collections. They began work in January, photographing historical markers and using high-technology resources to catalog the route's resources and to plan for the future.
"There is an extensive geographical information system element in the study," said Ritchie, the project manager. "We are utilizing global positioning system satellites to locate and map historical and archaeological sites, recreational areas and other points of interest."
The maps also will be used by MDOT in planning future improvements, he said.
Ritchie also sees an economic development aspect of the project. "The Mississippi route runs through Clarksdale, Greenville, Vicksburg, Natchez, and other communities that can use the information to better promote tourism," he explained.
For O'Hear, the road's Mississippi section already is rich in archaeological sites.
"While there are only three publicly owned and developed archaeological sites along the Mississippi route, there are scores in private ownership that are, in some ways, more spectacular," he said. "We are trying to find some that represent the entire 10,000 years of Native American settlement along the river and are well preserved."
O'Hear pointed to one 85-mound site less than a mile from the route that offers tremendous potential. Though mapped by the Smithsonian Institution in 1880, it remains undeveloped and in private hands.
"Both the tenant and the landowner have an interest in preservation," O'Hear said. "We are working with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to develop its potential."