Archaeological Survey of the Old Federal Road in Alabama

More precise locations of the roads extending from Fort Stoddert to St. Stephens, Mobile, andNew Orleans can be determined by examining Fletcher Hale’s map of Mobile County (Figure 3-9) and1938 aerial photographs. Hale was a county engineer in Monroe County whose passion throughout thelate 1930s and 1940s was to trace the Old Federal Road as precisely as he could. He created a series ofdetailed maps of the road based largely on his interpretations of roads and road traces visible on theground and on aerial photographs taken in the 1930s and 1940s. So of course his maps correspond closelyto the road system visible on the 1938 aerial photographs available to us. We first compared the roadsidentified by Hale on his Mobile County map to the historic aerials, then to modern aerial photographs.We also made adjustments to account for any alignment issues resulting from georeferencing his mapswith the aerial photos. Historic survey plats were consulted as well, but they did not prove useful forMobile and Washington counties, since the earliest extant plats do not show roads. And, unfortunately,Hale did not map the Old Federal Road in Washington County. Two roads crossings, however, arementioned in Seth Pease’s 1806 survey notes: an Indian Path on the western boundary of Section 19,Township 2 North, Range 2 West; and the Chickasawhay Path from the southernmost Choctaw town toFort Stoddert, which crossed the eastern boundary of Section 14, Township 2 North, Range 2 West. 4Both points fall along the same road heading west to New Orleans from Fort Stoddert, which confirms theorigin of that historic road as an Indian path.Hale labeled the southernmost section of the Old Federal Road the “Old River Road,” as it wasknown locally in the early twentieth century. He also identified a road running west from NannahubbaIsland, where the Old Federal Road originally crossed the Mobile-Tensaw delta, that connected with theroad from Fort Stoddert to St. Stephens. This section of road is shown on the Bradley, Ludlow, Melish,and LaTourette maps.Today, the three historic roads extending from Fort Stoddert generally follow modern pavedroadways. The road to the south corresponds closely with U.S. Highway 43, which runs north fromMobile, through the small communities of Chickasaw, Satsuma, Axis, Salco, Bucks, Chestang, andMovico to Mount Vernon. West from Fort Stoddert, Military Road/Mobile County Road 96 to MountVernon Arsenal was part of the early route from Fort Stoddert to New Orleans. North toward St.Stephens, U.S. Highway 43 continues through Calvert, Malcolm, Macintosh, Wagerville, and Leroy. InLeroy, Washington County Highway 34 branches northwest to St Stephens. Modern U.S. Highway 43diverges in places from the Old Federal Road, especially in the immediate vicinity of Fort Stoddert, whereFletcher Hale’s Old River Road corresponds much more closely than does U.S. Highway 43. All of ourhistoric maps show the Old Federal Road leading directly to Fort Stoddert, as does the Old River Road,while U.S. Highway 43 runs several miles west of Fort Stoddert.58