Things to Do in Natchez, Mississippi

This 15,000-square-foot Greek Revival mansion sits on an 80-acre estate that’s now part of Natchez National Historical Park. It’s furnished as it was just before the Civil War. Rangers also tell the story of the 22 enslaved people who lived and worked here.

★ Good to know The grounds and outbuildings are free; house tours run several times a day and must be reserved on Recreation.gov.

Longwood, also called Nutt’s Folly, is the largest octagonal house in the United States. Enslaved people helped build it, and it’s a National Historic Landmark at 140 Lower Woodville Road. Natchez Pilgrimage Tours runs guided tours daily, year-round.

★ Good to know A two-house ticket covers Longwood and Stanton Hall, and you don’t have to see both on the same day.

Built in the 1850s, this Greek Revival mansion at 401 High St. is one of the most opulent antebellum houses left in the South. The Pilgrimage Garden Club runs it as a museum. It’s a National Historic Landmark inside the On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District.

★ Good to know Tours start at the top of each hour and last 45 minutes to an hour.

Forks of the Road, where D’Evereux Drive meets St. Catherine Street, was the site of the second-largest slave market in the Deep South; the outdoor exhibit is open daily, sunup to sundown. Downtown, the William Johnson House was home to the Barber of Natchez. He was a free man of color whose diary records life in the 1800s South.

★ Good to know Both are free; the Johnson House’s first floor and exhibit hall are open, while the upstairs living quarters remain closed.

This 128-acre site holds three platform mounds that the Natchez people used as their main ceremonial center in the late 1600s and early 1700s. There’s a reconstructed house, a nature trail and a small museum with Native American crafts. After a military defeat by the French in 1730, the Natchez left the site. Today it hosts an annual Natchez Powwow.

★ Good to know Admission and parking are free, but the visitor center holds only 15 people at a time.

Natchez is the southern end of the Natchez Trace, the old overland route boatmen walked home toward Nashville. About 10 miles northeast of town, at milepost 10.3, Emerald Mound covers eight acres and is the second-largest Mississippian ceremonial mound in the country. It was built and used between about 1200 and 1730, and a trail climbs to the top.

★ Good to know Emerald Mound is open sunrise to sunset every day and is free.

The French built Fort Rosalie on the bluff in 1716, and the site is now part of the national historical park. It’s open daily from sunup to sundown.

★ Good to know It’s a short drive from the Johnson House and downtown.