In three days Natchez will come together for a celebration, a celebration of us.

Natchez is known as a bit of a party town. By our nature, we like socializing and having fun together.

But this week, Natchez comes together to celebrate how Natchez came to be.

Three centuries of our history will be marked Wednesday when the city’s yearlong birthday celebration reaches culmination with a day of celebrations.

Wednesday’s Tricentennial celebrations begin, fittingly, at the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians.

While the fighting with the French nearly made the Natchez tribe extinct, our city owes much to these fascinating Native American forefathers.

Among the most anticipated event that day will be the first public access to the site of the French Fort Rosalie on Canal Street. The National Park Service now controls the site and has been working to get it ready for Wednesday’s birthday party.

The site’s dedication will occur at 4 p.m.

Later the celebration will continue with a community street party along Broadway Street, which promises to be a fun time.

Natchez’s Tricentennial celebration is, on the surface, about our community’s history. But the Tricentennial can — and should — serve as a launching point for the next 300 years.

That starts this week as we show one another just how much we have in common — rich or poor, young or old, black or white. All of us make Natchez look and feel like Natchez.