The columns of the Windsor Ruins stand among the trees along the Mississippi River lika a misplaced Parthenon. Of course, when the columns were built by slave labor they were much more visible; the trees were not there; the land was mostly cotton fields.
The columns supported the roof of the plantation mansion of Smith Coffee Daniel II, a millionaire who owned thousands of acres and hundreds of enslaved peoples. He had barely unpacked in his newly built home when he died from a mosquito bite (Yellow Fever). The date was April 12, 1861, which also happened to be the first day of the Civil War.
The Windsor Ruins, however, did not become ruins at the hands of the Yankees. Grant's Army of the Tennessee landed near here to start their march to Vicksburg - but Grant spaired the mansion. It stood as the Daniell family home for another quarter century, until a careless houseguest dropped a lit cigarette on February 17, 1890. The house burned to the ground, leaving behind only the columns -- and the mosquitoes.
The Windsor runis today still stand. Routine groundskeeping keep the 45 foot tall columns free from sprouting trees, and the grass is mowed where the house used to be. The latticework connecting the tops of some of the columns are not a modern attempt at stabilization, but the remains of the iron railing that encircled the home's upper veranda. Everything else is gone, either burned up, looted, or sold for scrap during the great depression. Kudos to the quality craftsmanship of the enslaved people who made the bricks in the columns, as their work have stood, ramrod straight, all these years.
The ruins have a long history as an attraction. Postcards of it go back a century. Hollywood has stopped by, filming moody scenes for movies like Raintree County and Ghosts of Mississippi. People pose for their wedding pictures here, although the setting seems a little off message. Ghost-hunters frequent the site, which has its own ghost, a Union Soldier who has been seen by tourists in broad daylight.
There is no reason to ignore the warning signs and go beyond the fenced area. It is fenced for two reasons: 1. It is a historical site being preserved and 2. The columns are unstable, if you get conked by a falling brick, you'll have no one to blame but yourself. STAY OUT OF THE FENCED AREA! As for the cache, you are looking for a peanut butter jar hidden sightly in the woods to the left of (when facing) the ruins. There is a trail that leads to the cache. At GZ you will see the remains of a toppled column that someone pushed off into the woods and can take an upclose look at the bricks and how the columns were constructed.