Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of the Natchez Trace Parkway running through pine woods where it crosses Pigeon Roost Creek

Railroad and road town

Pigeon Roost

A trading post and stand on the old Natchez Trace, home of the Choctaw chief David Folsom. Nothing of it stands. A parkway pullout and a wooden sign mark the place.

33°31′43″N 89°09′32″W · ≈380 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain). See the photographs in the gallery below.

Parkway stop · free

Pigeon Roost is a stop on the Natchez Trace Parkway at milepost 203.5, with interpretive exhibits, car parking and wheelchair access (NPS page updated November 7, 2024). The parkway charges no entrance fee. The settlement itself is gone; the sign is what you can see.

Overview

A stand on the Choctaw road

The NPS sign at the Pigeon Roost pullout, from a Park Service planning document posted by 2014
The NPS sign at the Pigeon Roost pullout, from a Park Service planning document posted by 2014 · Photo: National Park Service, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Pigeon Roost was a trading post and roadside stand where the old Natchez Trace crossed Pigeon Roost Creek, near the Big Black River, in what was then Choctaw country. The creek took its name from the passenger pigeons that once roosted in the trees here by the million. The species is extinct now, and the Park Service sign at the stop says so.

Nathaniel Folsom, a New Englander, and his Choctaw wife ran the post before 1790. Wikipedia names her Ai-ni-chi-ho-yo and says she came from a line of Choctaw chiefs. Their son David took over, fed and lodged travelers, and became a leading figure in the nation. He helped clear a wagon road from Pigeon Roost to the Elliot mission, took in the missionary Cyrus Byington in 1823, and in 1826 became chief of the northeastern district, the first Choctaw chief elected by ballot by the Mississippi archives' account. By the late 1820s there was a school for Choctaw children here, and the mail route from Nashville to Natchez ran through.

The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 took the Choctaw lands in Mississippi, and Folsom led part of the tribe west. Wikipedia says Pigeon Roost ended with the treaty, yet a post office of that name ran from 1842 to 1871, so the name at least lived on for a time. Nothing of it stands today. The Natchez Trace Parkway has a pullout near the creek at milepost 203.5 with a wooden sign, and the sign points to the old crossing about a mile east.

Timeline

Traders, a chief and the treaty

  1. Nathaniel Folsom of New England and his Choctaw wife keep a trading post where the old Natchez Trace crosses Pigeon Roost Creek, by the NPS account. Wikipedia dates his arrival to 1790.
  2. David Folsom, their son, is born on January 25, per the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
  3. The Reverend Thomas Nixon stops at the stand, now run by David Folsom, and David's wife feeds him without charge.
  4. Pigeon Roost becomes a stop on the Nashville to Natchez mail route.
  5. The missionary Cyrus Byington lives with David Folsom here and learns Choctaw from him.
  6. David Folsom becomes chief of the Choctaw Nation's northeastern district. In April he leads warriors to oust Chief Mushulatubbee.
  7. A school for Choctaw children operates at Pigeon Roost.
  8. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek cedes the Choctaw lands in Mississippi. Wikipedia says Pigeon Roost ceased to exist with it.
  9. A post office runs under the name Pigeon Roost, so the name at least outlived the treaty.
  10. David Folsom dies in Indian Territory, after leading part of the tribe west to the Red River.
  11. A Natchez Trace Parkway pullout at milepost 203.5 marks the site with an NPS sign.

The sources differ on a few points. The Park Service dates the trading post to before 1790; Wikipedia says Folsom moved there in 1790. Wikipedia calls David Folsom chief of the northern district, the NPS sign and the state archives the northeastern. And the post office years outlast Wikipedia's 1830 end date by four decades.

What's left

A sign by the creek

The arrowhead sign for the Pigeon Roost stop beside the parkway, from a Park Service planning document posted by 2014
The arrowhead sign for the Pigeon Roost stop beside the parkway, from a Park Service planning document posted by 2014 · Photo: National Park Service, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Pigeon Roost is a quick stop. The Park Service lists interpretive exhibits, car parking and wheelchair access at milepost 203.5. The wooden sign tells the story in a few lines: Pigeon Roost Creek on your left, the vanished pigeons, the Folsoms' trading post one mile east where the Trace crossed the creek, the Reverend Thomas Nixon's visit in 1815 and David Folsom's election as chief in 1826.

The settlement's site is on the old Trace about a mile east of the pullout, where GNIS places Pigeon Roost (historical). Wikipedia also places a Pigeon Roost Cemetery at the settlement. We found no report of anything visible at either, or of public access to them, so treat the parkway sign as the place to visit.

The 1972 Sapa sheet below is centered on the GNIS townsite. It shows Pigeon Roost Creek straightened into a ditch, the parkway's right of way cutting across the northwest corner, and a few buildings along the road to the south, with no settlement named. The 1984 sheet shows the creek running east to Mathiston.

  • NPS sign and pullout at milepost 203.5
  • Pigeon Roost Creek
  • Settlement site about a mile east (GNIS), nothing reported standing
USGS topographic map of the Natchez Trace Parkway crossing Pigeon Roost Creek south of the Webster County line
USGS The National Map, topo. The parkway runs southwest across Pigeon Roost Creek, with the Choctaw-Webster county line just north and Lagrange Road to the south.
Aerial view of the Natchez Trace Parkway through pine woods and cleared fields at Pigeon Roost Creek
Aerial imagery, same area. The parkway in its strip of woods, with timber plantations and a cleared field to the east.

Historic maps

Pigeon Roost on USGS maps, 1953–1984

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Pigeon Roost, 1953
West Point sheet, 1953, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Starkville is the closest city with full services, and the small town of Mathiston sits just east of the parkway. From either Starkville or Jackson the route joins the Natchez Trace Parkway at US 82 and runs a mile south to the stop.

USGS topographic map of the Natchez Trace Parkway and US 82 near Mathiston, with routes to Pigeon Roost drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Starkville23.8 miabout 33 min
  1. From downtown Starkville, take Victory Lane and Eckford Drive.0.2 mi
  2. Turn right on MS 12.0.3 mi
  3. Turn left on South Jackson Street.3.1 mi
  4. Take the ramp onto US 82 west (with MS 25).18.9 mi
  5. Turn left on County Road 230, the short link to the Natchez Trace Parkway.0.3 mi
  6. Turn left on the Natchez Trace Parkway and drive south to the Pigeon Roost stop.1.0 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The Natchez Trace Parkway is a National Park Service road with no entrance fee. The Park Service lists car parking at the Pigeon Roost stop.
  • The map point is the parkway at Pigeon Roost Creek. Watch for the milepost 203.5 sign; the pullout itself is not on OpenStreetMap.
  • The settlement site, about a mile east on the old Trace, has no public access that we could confirm.

Photos

Pigeon Roost in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Pigeon Roost?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Pigeon Roost

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Mississippi index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Pigeon Roost, Mississippi", retrieved October 2026: the Big Black River crossing (from the 1938 WPA guide), the passenger pigeon name, Nathaniel Folsom's arrival in 1790, Ai-ni-chi-ho-yo, the 1821 mail route, the Elliot wagon road, Byington in 1823, the meeting with Mushulatubbee in 1822, the 1826 chieftaincy, the late-1820s school, the cemetery, the 1842–1871 post office, the 1830 end date, the milepost 203.5 marker.
  2. National Park Service, "Pigeon Roost, Milepost 203.5", last updated November 7, 2024: the historic stand site, its exhibits, parking and wheelchair access, the passenger pigeons, the Folsom trading post before 1790, David Folsom as chief of the Northeast District in 1826, the stands on the Trace.
  3. National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway fees, last updated May 11, 2023, read October 2026: no entrance fees.
  4. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, "Folsom (David) Letter," Z 1834.000, biographical note: born January 25, 1791, the first Choctaw chief elected by ballot, the April 1826 ouster of Moshulatubbee, the move west to the Red River, his death in 1847.
  5. Natchez Trace Travel, "Pigeon Roost": the stop at milepost 203.5, the Reverend Thomas Nixon's 1815 visit.
  6. The NPS sign at the pullout, as photographed in the Park Service planning document on Wikimedia Commons: the creek on the left, the trading post one mile east, the 1815 visit, the 1826 election.
  7. GNIS feature 685865, Pigeon Roost (historical), as given by Wikipedia: the townsite coordinates. Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits