02/20/09

Photo Gallery: Old Federal Road

The marker for the Old Federal Road in Rossville is located in front of the old Post Office, and sits next to a war veterans memorial.

Marker text:
The first vehicular and postal route of Georgia to Rossville was the Federal Road across the Cherokee Nation. Beginning on the southeast Indian boundary in the direction of Athens, Georgia, the thoroughfare led this way toward Nashville via Tate, Jasper, Talking Rock and Spring Place.

Formal permission by the Cherokees to open the road was granted in the 1805 Treaty of Tellico, Tennessee. Prior to that time the trace served as an Indian trading path to Augusta.

The earliest post office in northwest Georgia was established on this route at Rossville, on April 5, 1817, with John Ross as postmaster.

146-14 Georgia Historic Marker 1992