Cowles Mead Cemetery

Overview

About Cowles Mead Cemetery

Why stop

Tangible twin obelisks and a surviving family cemetery
Distinctive connection to early Mississippi Territory history

Heads up

Brief, text-focused stop with no surviving Greenwood house

At Milepost 88.1, a short walkway leads from the parking area to a small family burial plot in a wooded setting. Two tall white obelisks stand inside an iron fence, marking the graves of Cowles G. Mead and Mary Lilly Mead. Roadside interpretive information explains who they were and what once stood here. It is a quick, quiet stop rather than a destination in itself.

Parkwolf’s verdictWhy stop

Map

Where it is

Loading the Natchez Trace map

Full map

SightCowles Mead Cemetery32.35063, -90.34012

Keep this map with you offline in the Parkwolf app

Plan your stop

Before you go

4 active Natchez Trace alerts

ClosureParkway sections closed for bridge and road constructionTwo Natchez Trace Parkway sections are closed to through traffic; follow the signed detours.Official details
ClosureMount Locust historic stand closedThe historic stand at Mount Locust Inn & Plantation (MP 15.5) is closed because of structural concerns.Official details

See all 4 alerts

A park ranger sits on a dash-mounted phone, talking, as Parkwolf’s Tour Guide plays “Army Cutworm Moths: A Grizzly Bear Buffet” on Grand Loop Road below Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone — Parkwolf Tour GuideThe highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.

Natchez Trace Tour Guide

Your drive to Cowles Mead Cemetery, narrated.

Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Natchez Trace Parkway. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.

Recorded for this area

Cowles Mead and Aaron Burr

0:00 / 0:32

“Near this stretch of road, two white obelisks mark Cowles Mead Cemetery. Years before he lived here, Mead served as acting governor of the Mississippi Territory.”

Plays on the road 0.6 mi from Cowles Mead Cemetery in the Parkwolf Natchez Trace Tour Guide.

More about Cowles Mead Cemetery

The history in briefCowles Mead (his name is pronounced "Coals") left a mark on the early Mississippi Territory.

Cowles Mead (his name is pronounced "Coals") left a mark on the early Mississippi Territory. He held several political offices and served briefly as acting Territorial Governor, and in 1807 he ordered the arrest of Aaron Burr after Burr entered the territory. Mead's home, Greenwood, stood at this site about a mile northwest of Clinton and hosted distinguished guests. The house burned in 1863, after Mead's death.

What you will and will not seeThe cemetery is what remains.

The cemetery is what remains. There is no surviving Greenwood house, no reconstructed estate, and nothing left of the wider property or Mead's earlier tavern on the Old Trace. Expect the fenced pair of markers, the sign text, and the trees around them.

Practical notesPlan on roughly 10 minutes, longer if you read all the interpretive text.

Plan on roughly 10 minutes, longer if you read all the interpretive text.
Auto parking and bus/RV parking are available, and the site is wheelchair accessible.
Come in daylight, since the markers and signs need natural light to read.
Easy to fold into a longer Parkway drive between other stops near Clinton, Mississippi.

Wildlife

Wildlife in Natchez Trace

All Natchez Trace wildlife maps

39 sightingsAmerican AlligatorMost seen around 6 PMSighting map

35 sightingsWhite-tailed DeerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map

53 sightingsWild TurkeyMost seen around 7 AMSighting map

28 sightingsGreat Blue HeronMost seen around 6 PMSighting map

29 sightingsRed-headed WoodpeckerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map

32 sightingsTurkey VultureMost seen around noonSighting map

Sighting maps show where each species has been reported across Natchez Trace. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.