"Today on our journey up the Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee we are visiting an exhibit called NAPIER MINE near the Buffalo River in Tennessee four miles south of the parkway junction with Tennessee highways 20 and 412.

"As people moved into the expanding frontier, it wasn't possible to bring everything they needed, and they couldn't afford to have it shipped from the East. Among the things pioneers settling these areas needed were items made of iron, like shoes for their horses and nails, plow points and hoes for tending the fields and cast iron pots and skillets for cooking their food. In 1805, Dr. Rush Nutt discovered Iron ore here, and that provided the raw material for iron making operations in this area from 1820 to 1923.

"NAPIER MINE was an open pit mine because ore deposits were shallow here. Miners dug this high yield ore with pick axes and hauled it out in wagons drawn by mules.

"The exhibit at NAPIER MINE has specimens of the ore dug from the mine and examples of the iron products that could be made from the ore. From the exhibit parking lot visitors can see the pit of the mine.

"Join us next time when we will visit METAL FORD. I'm Frank Thomas, your guide along the Natchez Trace a road through the wilderness."

For more about Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness, visit eddieandfrank.com