The grassland at the Chickasaw Village Site, milepost 261.8 of the Natchez Trace Parkway on the north side of Tupelo, is the only prairie among the five places where the National Park Service monitors the parkway's vegetation. In 2021 the Gulf Coast Inventory and Monitoring Network sampled four permanent plots there, each 20 by 20 meters, and recorded 131 plant species. One plot was classed as Black Belt Prairie, a community ranked critically imperiled worldwide; the other three were Ruderal Mixed Prairie, grassland that has grown back on disturbed ground.
The flora is its own: only 36 percent of the species were also found in the forested plots at Rocky Springs, Jeff Busby, Colbert Ferry and Meriwether Lewis. Tall goldenrod covered 23 percent of the ground, partridge pea 18 percent and little bluestem 15 percent, and 6.5 percent of the identified prairie taxa were non-native. The Black Belt Prairie plot was the poorer one, with 46 species against 62 to 67 in each of the others, but half of its species grew in none of the other three prairie plots.
A 2014 Park Service condition assessment records that the fields were farmed well into the twentieth century and planted with exotic fescue, and that the park has reintroduced prescribed fire and cut Chinese privet to favor native plants.
Getting there
34.2781, -88.7419
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop is an audio tour guide app that tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
