Archaeological Survey of the Old Federal Road in Alabama

Figure 10-2. Old Federal Road labeled as “United States Mail Road” and other roads shown on JamesWeakley’s 1834 survey plat of Township 16 North, Range 30 East (courtesy of the Bureau of LandManagement, General Land Office).The Old Federal Road through Russell County is shown on several early published maps. Somediscrepancies between the maps are attributable to the lack of accurate land surveys in the Creek Nation atthe time of their creation. Abraham Bradley’s 1812 Postal Route Map of the United States shows the oldroad in Russell County between a point marked “29” (a mileage indicator) and “Coweta” (Figure 10-3).Bradley inaccurately depicted the road crossing the Chattahoochee River at “Coweta,” a major Creektown across the Chattahoochee River in Georgia. His map also erroneously placed the town of“Kussetas,” near where the Federal Road actually crossed, a great distance down the ChattahoocheeRiver. John Melish’s 1818 Map of the Alabama Territory correctly shows the Federal Road crossing atFort Mitchell and “Kussetau” (Figure 10-4). Melish also identified the “Pensacola Path” crossing of theFederal Road near Fort Bainbridge (not labeled).213