JACKSON — Tourists will soon be able to follow a driving trail of Mississippi’s Indian mounds.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation has received an $800,000 grant to put up historical markers and create road pull-offs. The trail is envisioned to run 350 miles from Wilkinson County to DeSoto County. Among the trail’s major sites will be the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians in Natchez and Winterville Mounds State Park north of Greenville.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History is surveying information on 45 mounds and making limited excavations of a smaller number whose character isn’t well understood.
A tour brochure and smartphone application are planned. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and several other tribes are working with the project.
Officials hope to complete the trail by fall 2014.
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