Tourism Director Donna Holdiness said the citizens of Kosciusko must realize the amount of tourism traffic the city receives.
“We have to realize what we have in our back door,” said Holdiness. “We have 6.4 million people that come through here, and we are missing, as a town, an opportunity for all those people to discover us. I mean, that many people get to know about us.”
According to the National Park Service, the Natchez Trace Parkway was the seventh most visited national park in 2021.
6.4 million people traveled the Natchez Trace Parkway last year, only trailing Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Gateway National Recreation Area, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and George Washington Memorial Parkway.
Spanning three states and stretching 444 miles, the historic trace guides travelers through 10,000 years of history while preserving the natural beauty of the Old Natchez Trace, an historic passageway once utilized by Native Americans, European settlers, slave traders, soldiers, and future leaders of America. The national parkway begins in Natchez and ends in Nashville, Tennessee. It also passes directly through Kosciusko. Many people navigating the trace today enjoy driving the scenic route as well as biking, hiking, and camping along the way.
Holdiness is also seeking out individuals to join the visitors’ center as volunteers to encourage and teach newcomers the history and significance of Kosciusko.
“They can come out (to the visitors’ center) and volunteer and be of service to try to entice people to come downtown,” she said. “Obviously, beautification too. We can keep things nice, take pride in our city, and take pride in the fact we have a national park in our back door.”
She also said city leadership must embrace Kosciusko’s own historic value by adding more historical signage and documentation.
“We’ve got to embrace our historic value by getting wayfaring signs up and getting interpretation sites down, so we have something to see. People ask for other historic places they can see, well, no, there aren’t any,” said Holdiness. “Where Andrew Jackson camped is now Kenny Dungan’s office. That’s where it runs — right across the springs. At the springs, we should have an interpretation sign that says on April 13, 1812, Andrew Jackson camped here, and his troops were here on the way to the Battle of New Orleans. They can read it off the visitors’ center wall, but they want to go and see. Then, if we get them that close to the camp, maybe they’ll want to buy a cap, t-shirt, candle, or see the bed and breakfast. History people love history.”
The tourism director said she has not been pleased with elected officials’ lack of involvement with the visitors’ center.
“We have two aldermen that are retired that won’t even come out here to volunteer, and I have begged our aldermen to come out here — Earl Price and Robert Ellis,” said Holdiness. “We’ve got two retired aldermen, and they don’t even care enough to come out. The mayor, Tim Kyle, when he was an alderman, he came out here and sat out here.”
Holdiness said visitors love to see the historic Attala County Courthouse on the court square. While recognizing that the courthouse is still functioning, Holdiness said employees should remember they are working inside of a historic monument and be mindful of visitors.
“It’s just not too friendly if you go in there because they’re working and think that it’s just their workplace. It’s an historic monument. Those employees should be mindful that if visitors walk in there, they should be hospitable and not think they are there to pay their taxes. They can ask that, but if they find out they’re visitors, it would be nice to talk to them and tell them a little bit about the courthouse.”
Holdiness said she has been actively trying to get people to embrace what Kosciusko has to offer rather than thinking that there is nothing here.
“I don’t know how you instill that love or fire, but I think when people see things changing, if they were to see interpretation signage, they may not like it or read it, but at least they see something is going on.”
Holdiness said she sends tourists downtown, but they usually come back and end up heading to French Camp, which she would like to see change moving forward.
“It’s not a problem to send them to French Camp because they’ve got a lot of history there. They can actually see old working farms, blacksmith shops, and all of that stuff,” she said. “Here, we’ve covered all of ours up, but we can still have some interpretation.”
