Archaeological Survey of the Old Federal Road in Alabama

and 1811 have not been found. In 1817, the Secretary of War directed $5,000 to David Mitchell,Benjamin Hawkins’s replacement at the Creek Agency for building and keeping in repair the road andbridges between Fort Hawkins in Georgia and old Fort Stoddert, and an equal amount was allocated toprivate contractors. U.S. Army troops were tasked with road building, when other means provedineffective. State and federal officials also considered plans to improve the route by shortening thedistance or shifting the road to avoid swamps and major river crossings. But none of this happened andeven simple bridge building proved nearly impossible to accomplish, because, according to Mitchell, “thepeople in that quarter are so much engaged in clearing land and making Plantations that they will not forany reasonable compensation detach their hands from that object.”No wonder Israel Pickens wrote homefrom St. Stephens in 1818 that he had just endured “a tedious and unpleasant journey with my family overthe almost impassable road which leads from Georgia here.” 58Once Alabama achieved statehood in 1819, most expenditures for maintenance of the FederalRoad fell to state and county officials. An early act of the Alabama legislature specified how public roadswere to be maintained.Chapter 5: An Act to reduce into one the several Acts concerning Roads, Bridges,Ferries, and Highways. – Passed December 21, 1820.Sec. 1. Be it enacted ... That all public roads and highways in the several countiesof this state, that have been laid out or appointed by virtue of any act of the generalassembly heretofore made, or by virtue of any act of court, are hereby declared to bepublic roads; ...Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That all free white male persons, between eighteenand forty-five years of age, and all male slaves, and other persons of colour over eighteenand under fifty years of age, shall be liable, and it is hereby made their duty to work on,clear out, and repair the public roads of this state, under such provisions and regulationsas are herein after made: Provided nevertheless, That no licensed ministers of the gospel,or instructors of public and private schools, shall be liable to work on public roads. 59Enforcement of these and later provisions became the purview of county road commissions by the 1830s.Later History of the Federal RoadHistory is still being made along the Federal Road, which remains in use today in many locationsacross central and southern Alabama. As the following chapters demonstrate, the Federal Road has alasting importance today in the memories of those who grew up and lived along it. For a fascinating47