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
Minna Bluff southern journeys towards the South Pole. Originally identified simply as "the Bluff", it was later named by Captain Scott after the wife of Royal Geographical Society former president Sir Clements Markham. Every expedition that followed Scott on this route after his pioneering journey (including Ernest Shackleton 1908, Scott himself 1911 and Shackleton's Ross Sea Party 1914-16) used Minna Bluff to position depots and as a critical marker to guide homeward journeys. Because of the state of the ice in its immediate vicinity, the polar route was established some 20 miles to its east, depots being laid on this route within