Natchez, Mississippi the United States acquired this area from the British after the American Revolutionary War, the city served as the capital of the American Mississippi Territory and then of the state of Mississippi. It predates Jackson by more than a century; the latter replaced Natchez as the capital in 1822, as it was more centrally located in the developing state. The strategic location of Natchez, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, ensured that it would be a pivotal center of trade, commerce, and the interchange of ethnic Native American, European, and African cultures in the region; it held this position
Mill Bluff State Park in the lake. The park is mostly forested, with northern pin oak, jack pine, red pine, eastern white pine, and white oak dominant. Several of the bluffs bear 400-year-old petroglyphs shaped like bird tracks, contemporaneous with the Roche-a-Cri Petroglyphs in Roche-a-Cri State Park. The diaries and journals of west-bound settlers often mention these bluffs. A sawmill was operated in the vicinity, after which Mill Bluff was named. Mill Bluff and a small area at its foot was proclaimed a state park on August 13, 1936. Mill Bluff State Park was added to the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve in May