Mile marker 15.5 Mount Locust

Constructed circa, 1780, this home is one of the oldest structures in Mississippi. It functioned as both a working plantation and as an inn, where travelers on the Natchez Trace could rest for the night. Mount Locust is the only surviving inn of the more than 50 that existed during the period of greatest use of the Old Natchez Trace.

Beginnings of Mount Locust

The American Revolution caused several thousand British sympathizers to move into the Natchez District. During the American Revolution, Spain moved against Britain and seized Natchez in 1779. John Blommart, a retired British naval officer, probably built Mount Locust about 1780.

William Ferguson

William Ferguson, a Virginian, migrated to Natchez in 1774. In 1784 the recently married Ferguson bought the Blommart tract, Mt. Locust. As the Ferguson family grew, so did the house and its outbuildings. William Ferguson's widow Paulina married James Chamberlain in 1806. The Ferguson-Chamberlain family lived at Mount Locust for over 150 years.

Mount Locust as an Inn

After 1795, the Mississippi River was legally opened for American traffic. Settlers from the Ohio River Valley floated their products downriver and sold them at Natchez or New Orleans. Most of them walked back home over the Natchez Trace, because their boats could not go upstream.

Mount Locust as a Plantation

When steamboats came to the Mississippi, travel on the Trace declined. At Mount Locust, cotton growing replaced the tavern business.

Mount Locust Today

The site is open February through November, every day from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free and interpretive programs are given daily. Restrooms, exhibits, an information center, and bookstore are on-site. There is a wheelchair accessible walkway leading to the historic home.

sign from road

Sign on the walls of the Information Center of Mount Locust

Sign on the walls of the Information Center of Mount Locust

This sign explains how Mount Locust was constructed - and how additions and repairs can be dated by the type of wood, pattern of the saws used, and the nails and screws found.

This sign shows all the Inns travelers could stop at along the Trace in 1812. Mount Locust was called "Union Town" and included a Tannery, the Inn itself, and a few other houses.





The "Big House" of Mount Locust Plantation





Hitching posts in the front of the house.





Kate running up the steps to house





Writing desk in the living room

Map on the wall of the living room. This map shows the boundaries between the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations.

Hearth in the living room. The ashes of the fires were collected in the wooden boxes to be used to make lye soap.

The high chair in this corner of the living room is the only piece of furniture original to the house. All the other furniture was recreated by artisans.

The family ate here in the living room at this table

Spinning wheel in the living room.

Kate and Ranger Mike on the porch of Mount Locust.

Desk in the master bedroom. This is where Mr. Ferguson and later Mr. Chamberlain figured accounts and wrote letters.

Bed in the master bedroom.

Hearth in the master bedroom

One of the beds in the boys' room. Mrs. Ferguson raised 11 children in this house - 10 boys and 1 girl. She had 5 boys by Mr. Ferguson and 5 boys by Mr. Chamberlain. There are 2 beds in this room. The reason they are so high from the floor is that trundle beds used to slide under them.

The one and only girl born to Mrs. Ferguson-Chamberlain had her own room next to the boys' room.

Hopper where the family made lye soap. Ashes from the family's hearths and water were poured in the top and mixed. The mixture was then collected from the bottom of the hopper and combined with animal tallow to make the soap.

Water cistern in the back yard.



Information sign in front of the hopper



The kitchen house used to stand behind the dinner bell. Slave women would ring the bell to call travelers and slaves alike to "come and get it".



Slave cemetery



This small stone in the middle of the fenced in cemetery is all that marks the passing of the 43 slaves who were buried at Mount Locust. There are 10 names carved on the stone.