The Natchez Trace Parkway, commemorating the original Natchez Trace, stretches 444 miles from Natchez to Nashville. Construction began in 1937 with funding from the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 and, except during World War II, continued in stages into the late 20th century, with the final segment completed in 2005. In November 1951, the first section to open was a 22-mile stretch between Ridgeland and Kosciusko. Opening ceremonies were held at a newly constructed cabin that served as a National Park Service museum and visitor center, and the ribbon cutting included Roane Fleming Byrnes, head of the Natchez Trace Parkway Association, the mayors of Jackson and Kosciusko, and Mississippi Congressmen John Bell Williams, Thomas Abernathy, and James T. Whitten. Byrnes was a tireless advocate for the parkway's development. In 2009, the Ridgeland cabin, originally built in 1950-51, was restored as a museum and visitor center in a ribbon-cutting ceremony after having previously been used by the Craftsmen's Guild of Mississippi.
