For nearly 300 years, the beautiful Natchez bluff and its scenic views has drawn Europeans, and then later Americans, to our small home city.

Those views, particularly at sunset or when the fog rolls in over the river are amazingly majestic.

But for us, the most amazing, most beautiful thing about Natchez is its diverse people. It’s the quiet surprise that many people find after they live here a while — Natchez is just filled with some pretty interesting — and sometimes a little quirky — people.

It’s been that way since the beginning.

Celebrating that diversity is why we cannot wait for the second phase of the Natchez Trails Project to get under way next year.

The next phase will celebrate Natchez’s diversity by telling the unique history of a single, but important street — St. Catherine Street.

As Mimi Miller with the Historic Natchez Foundation suggests, “You had French, Polish, German, English, Irish, Italian families, one family from Denmark and a huge African-American population.”

It’s clearly the most ethnically diverse street in Natchez, perhaps the world. The street is the home of one of the nation’s most notorious sites, the Forks of the Road slave market, but also a place where the nation’s first black U.S. Senator pastored his church congregation.

We are thankful to the many, many people in Natchez who have worked hard to make the Natchez Trails Project turn from a dream to a reality. To watch it grow further with the next planned phase is truly a delight.

When completed the St. Catherine Street phase will help complete the Natchez story for visitors and locals alike.