This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

Former BiloxPAdministrator New MHT Chief
Lolly Barnes, the former president of the board of trustees of the Mississippi Heritage Trust, has been named executive director of the preservation group. Barnes served on the MHT board 2003-10 and was president 2008-09.
The nonprofit Mississippi Heritage Trust was established in 1992 to help preserve the prehistoric and historic cultural resources of the state. MHT fulfills its mission through education, advocacy, and active preservation using a range of programs and activities for communities.
“From her early days as historical administrator with the City of Biloxi through her work with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, her service as president of the board of the Mississippi Heritage Trust, and her term as commissioner to the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area, Lolly Barnes has been a champion of historic preservation,” said MDAH di-
rector H.T. Holmes. “She is the right leader for the Mississippi Heritage Trust at a critical time, and we look forward to working with her.”
Over the past twenty years Barnes, a Biloxi native, has worked to preserve and protect historic properties along the gulf coast and across the state. As historical administrator for Biloxi she was responsible for the restoration of several historic properties, including the Saenger Theatre and the Biloxi Lighthouse.
After Hurricane Katrina, Barnes worked for the National Trust for Historic Preservation to promote the restoration of historic buildings damaged in the storm. In 2010 she spearheaded the MHT’s Good Neighbor project and coordinated volunteers from around the country who painted historic homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Barnes received a bachelor’s degree in history from Louisiana
Lolly Barnes, left, executive director of the Mississippi Heritage Trust, talks to MDAH Historic Preservation division director Jim Woodrick.
State University and a master’s degree in history from the University of Southern Mississippi. A former fellow with the Knight Program in Community Building, she was most recently the assistant director of the IP Cu-
linary Arts Cafe at the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center.
Barnes succeeds as MHT executive director David Preziosi, who last year accepted a position as executive director of Preservation Dallas.
New Driving Trail To Link State’s Mounds
Work has begun on the new 350-mile Mississippi Mounds Trail, a project to help interpret and preserve the prehistoric earthworks, educate the public about Mississippi’s rich Native American history, and promote heritage tourism. Reaching from Desoto County to Wilkinson County and following the Highway 61 corridor, the trail will highlight thirty or more earthworks built by prehistoric American Indian groups.
Anchored by Winterville Mounds just outside Greenville and the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians in Natchez, the trail will include interpretive markers and pull-offs at the mound sites. A driving tour brochure and smart phone application will provide a map and additional information about the history of each site.
The initial research phase of the project began this spring with a survey of existing information on forty-five mound sites and the production of detailed maps for planning
and study. With this information in hand, this summer will be devoted to field investigations, including geophysical surveys, systematic coring, and limited excavation at a series of sites where the age and character of the mounds is still unknown. The work to date shows many of the mound sites have evidence of large-scale terrain modifications that took place before and during construction of the mounds themselves. The trail will feature the better-known mounds and mound groups, such as Lake George, Fatherland, and Carson, as well as lesser-known and poorly understood mounds, such as Lesslie, Bates, and Johnson Cemetery.
When the research phase is completed and interpretive signage has been produced, the Mississippi Department of Transportation will begin construction of the pull-offs and install the markers. The target date for completion of the trail is fall of 2014.
Dr. Vincas P. Steponaitis of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill is
conducting the research on the southern mounds, from Woodville to Vicksburg. Work in the southern Delta is under the directorship of Dr. H. Edwin Jackson of the University of Southern Mississippi, while the north Delta is being studied by Dr. Jay K. Johnson of the University of Mississippi. Retired Mississippi State University archaeologist John W. O’Hear is managing the work for MDAH.
The project is a partnership between the Mississippi Division of the Federal Highway Administration, MDOT, MDAH, and tribal participants, including the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the -Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, the Chickasaw Nation, the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma, and the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana. Funding for the trail comes from an $800,000 Transportation Enhancement grant from the Mississippi Division of the Federal Highway Administration to MDOT.