Natchez Trace Parkway part 5 - Tishomingo to Davis Lake

After 2 nights at Tishomingo State Park, it was time to head south to our next destination.  Davis Lake is only about 60 miles from Tishomingo down the Parkway.  

Along this route, you can see part of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, ancient burial mounds, nature trails, historical exhibits and a visitors center.

We only made one stop on this leg, at the Confederate Gravesites and Old Trace.

There is an informational plaque which states the original headstones may have had their names, but those are long since gone.  In the 1940s, a senator had marble headstones erected but they were stolen.  The National Park service erected the headstones that you see here.  There are coins and rocks left on the headstones which we wondered about while we were there.  When we got home, my husband did some googleing and found this explanation:

Supposedly, coins are left as a message to the deceased soldiers  family to let them know someone was there to pay their respects.  The denomination of coin holds some significance.  A penny just means you visited, a nickel means you trained at boot camp together, a dime means you served together, and a quarter means you were with the soldier when he or she was killed.  In the Jewish faith, it is customary to leave rocks instead of flowers.