 After
General Andrew Jackson’s victory over the British at the Battle
of New Orleans on January 8, 1815 and at the close of the war with
Great Britain, some of his soldiers returned to their homes in
Tennessee over the Natchez Trace. Originally a forest path, the
500 mile road, first beaten through the wilderness by buffalo,
then by Indians, frontiersmen, armies and settlers, extended from
Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi.
Among Jackson’s troops was a soldier who carried some pecan (Carya
illinoensis) nuts home from Louisiana. When he camped
overnight at what is now Natchez Trace State Forest, he met a girl
named Sukie Morris, who lived nearby. The soldier gave her some of
the pecans, which she planted. One of them grew to become the
Natchez Trace Pecan, at one time the largest documented pecan tree
in the United States.
The old pecan stands on the Camden Road, in rural Carroll
County, 5 miles north of exit 116 on I-40 (west of Nashville) in
the Natchez Trace State Forest. The forest is managed by the
Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Division of Forestry, and
signs and markers provide directions to the tree. The tree is over
183 years old and is in poor health.
Originally nominated and researched by Gene Hyde.
Entered into the Landmark & Historic Tree Register in 1998
as a historic tree.
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