NATCHEZ — The federal government taketh, and the federal government giveth back.

In a small ceremony Thursday originally slated to overlook the property in question, the federal government gave back to the State of Mississippi the so-called bean field property originally slated to be the southern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway. The ceremony was moved inside Natchez High School away from the August heat.

During the ceremony, U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Jackson, handed off the deed to Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, R-Jackson.

Natchez attorney Walter Brown later logged the deed transaction with the 17th Chancery District Court.

The City of Natchez currently has a 25-year lease on 37 of the 67 acres conveyed, and has eyed the property since 1999 for possible recreational use, Brown said.

“We intend in 2015 to go to the state legislature to convey the bean field to Natchez,” he said.

The land was originally part of an acquisition by the then-Mississippi State Highway Commission to serve as the southern entrance to the Natchez Trace Parkway.

In the 1990s, however, the highway commission — now the Mississippi Department of Transportation — and the National Park Service determined the best entrance for the Trace would be more east, at Liberty Road. The 67 acres became surplus property.

The 30 acres in addition to the bean field are located across U.S. 61 and 84, and are largely wooded.

The conveyance of property includes a covenant that any development of the land will be of a use compatible with that of the Trace Parkway, Brown said.

Getting the land returned to the State of Mississippi took an act of Congress, which Cochran introduced and was signed into law in September 2013.

Cochran characterized the re-conveyance as “the last modification of the terminus of the Parkway.”

“Here we are to put the icing on the cake today,” he said. “Let’s all enjoy the Parkway.”

Dale Wilkerson, the former interim superintendent for the Trace Parkway, represented the National Park Service at the ceremony.

“It is only right and proper that land acquired for the Natchez Trace Parkway be given back to the people who bought it in the first place,” he said.

Even though the property originally acquired for the Trace terminus was larger than 67 acres, Brown said the U.S. government would continue to hold some of it in order to maintain a tree line near the Trace.

A plan to use the bean field property for recreation purposes was first introduced in the late 1990s, though discussions in recent months have focused on developing and building up existing recreation programs in Adams County.