A Nightmare in the Black Lagoon

February 7, 2025

Last night, I awoke at 3 in the morning. I was too hot and I had stuffed up sinuses. Getting out of bed, I took some vitamin C, blew my nose, opened the window beside my bed and dropped onto the mattress, hoping to slip right back to sleep. In the dark of the night, through the newly opened window, I heard a rhythmic mud sucking sound creeping louder then softer over and over. Not knowing what it was, I kept imaging something or someone squishing through the water shallows in our direction, after all, we had chosen this forlorn spot away from any other people. Finally, I assured myself it was simply the gentle lapping in and around the cypress knees that I wasn’t used to listening for. Before I knew it the sun was streaming in the window with song birds singing in time with the sloshing of the lake water washing the cypress.

Longwood. Natchez, Mississippi

Harry asked the tall stately woman at the Natchez Visitor Center this morning if she only had time to visit one home, what would it be? She very quickly answered Longwood. So we headed out, instead of finding an antebellum plantation, we were greeted with our nation’s largest octagonal home built in mid-nineteenth century in the oriental style.

This home is a story about plans and how life…or death can alter or wreck the direction we intended. Holler and Julia Nutt started construction of this home in 1860. Shortly after, the Civil War broke out and the workmen from Philadelphia left for home. Leaving only the shell complete. The Nutts moved into the basement of the home and with their slaves help. They made that livable. Due to Hallor’s untimely early death, the rest of the home remains incomplete.

**Stand by for a give away from The Camp that will be announced tomorrow!