Bluff Park

Situated on the Natchez bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, Bluff Park is a center of recreation and public activity dating by the city’s founding as a Spanish colony in 1790. Many historical figures have given speeches at the park including the Marquis de Lafayette, a French hero of the American Revolution (1825), President William Howard Taft (1909), and President George H.W. Bush (1984, during his vice-presidency). Hot air balloons have been launched at the park dating back to 1806, a tradition that continues to this day with the Natchez Balloon Festival. The park has a Victorian-style bandstand that was built by the Pilgrimage Garden Club in 1969.