Natchez Bluffs and River Views

Natchez Bluffs and River Views. Natchez Trails. , The Harper family mansion had a spectacular view of the river from the bluff. The construction of the railroad and related development made its land valuable for commerce, and the house and its garden were destroyed to build a large warehouse (no longer standing). Eva Lovell of Monmouth wrote an obituary for the house in 1903: "The demand of mercantile progress claimed for its use the once handsome home known as the Harper House. Its situation was what trade needed and with a powerful hand she took it, and now covering what was once a beautiful lawn now stands a large warehouse.", In 1828, the federal government built a lighthouse on the Natchez bluff. The brick tower stood north of the existing railroad station and included a house for the lighthouse keeper. The tower had a view of the river that stretched north and south about twelve miles. Travel writer S.A. Ferrall criticized the lighthouse as "a monument of useless expenditure." The tornado of 1840 destroyed the structure and it was never rebuilt., The most famous duel in Natchez history happened in 1824 on a sandbar north of Natchez Under-the-Hill. The principals each fired two shots, missed their marks, and shook hands. A fight between their supporters broke out and two men were killed and four wounded. The sandbar fight made Jim Bowie famous. Although shot twice and stabbed, Bowie managed to kill one person and wound another with a special knife that became known as the Bowie knife. An adventurer, slave trader and Louisiana landowner, Bowie moved to Texas in 1830. He became even more famous during the Texas Revolution and died in 1836 at the Alamo., The site of Bowie's sandbar fight remains part of Mississippi, but the land, now known as Giles Island, became separated from Natchez in the 1930s. The U.S.Army Corps of Engineers changed the course of the Mississippi River after the disastrous 1927 flood. To straighten the channel, they dug through the Giles estate that bordered the river, created an island off the mainland, and changed the river view from the Natchez bluffs.