NATCHITOCHES, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A trail leading from near St. Louis, Missouri to Natchitoches, Louisiana, teaches us about a race that ruled “the new world” long before people from “the old world” arrived.
The Natchitoches Trace, also known in part as the Southwest Trail and/or the Old Military Road, is one of the oldest roads in the state of Arkansas. It is an ancient Native American trail that winds through Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana before connecting with another series of trails that extended outward from Natchitoches, Louisiana.
And at least one scholar believes a series of interconnected, ancient footpaths once led from near Cahokia Mounds (near modern-day St. Louis) to Natchitoches in Louisiana, over the Mississippi River to Natchez and on to Nashville, and from Natchitoches to the old capital of the Aztec empire–Mexico City…