PICKING UP DE SOTO'S TRAIL 



By JOHN R. SW ANTON 



Etluiologist, Bureau of American Ethnology 



Between 1939 and 1943 will occur the 400th anniversary of Her- 

 nando De Soto's expedition across America to the Mississippi. As 

 chairman of the U. S. De Soto Expedition Commission, appointed 

 by Congress to recommend an appropriate celebration of this event, 

 I engaged in two field trips, the first, May 16 to June 4, and the 

 second October 8 to November 2. At Aberdeen, Miss., near which 

 point it is believed that De Soto crossed the Tombigbee River, I had 

 the pleasure of being the guest of Dr. W. A. Evans, for more than 

 40 years a leading physician of Chicago, who has now retired to his 

 boyhood home at Aberdeen. Dr. Evans took or sent me in his own 

 car to all points of interest along the Tombigbee from Columbus as 

 far as and beyond the site of Cotton Gin Port near the junction of 

 the main river and Town Creek, the possibilities of each of the cross- 

 ings being examined in turn, as well as the roads which might have 

 been taken by De Soto between the river and Pontotoc Ridge. Assum- 

 ing that the Chickasaw town was then on the ridge, it is concluded 

 that, while the crossing may have been made as high up as Cotton 

 Gin Port, the most probable location appears to be in the neighbor- 

 hood of Aberdeen. A visit was made to the site of the old fort occu- 

 pied by Bienville in 1736 during his disastrous Chickasaw campaign. 

 Collections of pottery made in this section were examined wherever 

 any such were found, and samples of some of them were obtained. 



On the 22nd Dr. Evans took me to Oxford, and I made that the 

 center for a number of excursions undertaken for the purpose of 

 locating the Alibamo Province visited by De Soto in 1541, and study- 

 ing the probable location of the trail which the Spaniards followed 

 between the old Chickasaw country and the Mississippi (fig. 113) 

 During part of this work I was accompanied by Prof. Calvin S. 

 Brown, author of the standard work on the "Archeology of Missis- 

 sippi." On one occasion we extended our trip to Clarksdale, where we 

 were met and guided through that section by Charles W. Clark, who 

 has long been interested in the subject of the investigations (fig. 114). 

 Small collections of pottery were made at several places and much 

 interesting historical information collected. Before returning to Wash- 

 ington I visited Tupelo and was taken over the historic Chickasaw 



