NATCHEZ &045; Contractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have started an archaeological study &045; through documents, not digging &045; to determine what sites in Natchez were linked to the Underground Railroad.

Such sites are likely, &uot;because (enslaved) people were coming from as far as northwest Alabama and southwest Tennessee,&uot; said researcher Dr. Robert Cassanello. &uot;Natchez was a place people could meet and know they could escape easily through the port there.&uot;

Starting in 1998 and ending in 2001, the U.S. Corps of Engineers supervised a multi-million-dollar bluff stabilization project that included the area from Clifton Avenue to Silver Street.

Before and during that project, the Corps conducted digs to make sure no historically significant site was disturbed by the stabilization. The current study is a continuation of that &uot;mitigation&uot; work, said the Corps’ Ken Wojtala.

The previous digs, conducted along the Mississippi River bluff, uncovered a suspected 18th-century French cemetery on the site of Fort Rosalie. It also recovered the remains of the former city waterworks and an old saw mill as well as items used by households on land at the foot of the bluff.

But instead of conducting digs, those leading this study &045; researchers from Fairfield, Ala.-based Miles College

&045; will sift through historical documents in depositories from Washington, D.C., and St. Louis to Jackson and, next month, Natchez itself.

The researchers will search for evidence of sites in Natchez that were connected with the Underground Railroad. The &uot;Railroad,&uot; a network of people and groups who aided people escaping from slavery, aided as many as 100,000 fugitives, according to the National Park Service.

Cassanello said he and King are also cooperating with the Southwest Mississippi-Central Louisiana Underground Railroad Association on the study.

Miles College history professor Cassanello and researcher Pam King met Friday to determine a plan of action for the research which, under a contract with the Corps, could take up to five years.

As of now, they plan to visit Natchez in the first half of February to conduct research at the Adams County Courthouse and other sites. &uot;There’s a wealth of information,&uot; Cassanello said.