Old Federal Road

This highway from Tate to Talking Rock follows substantially the course of the Old Federal Road, the earliest thoroughfare to link Georgia and Tennessee across the Cherokee Nation. Permission to use the way was granted informally by the Indians in 1803 and formally by the 1805 Treaty of Tellico, Tenn.<br><br> The Federal Road was the first vehicular thoroughfare west of the Chattahoochee, the earliest postal route of this section of the State, and a leading emigrant trace to Tennessee and North Alabama. Kentucky and Tennessee stock man drove animals down this artery to Southeastern markets.