Walking the McIntosh Road

 An important part of life in Clay County Alabama is traveling the roads. From freshly paved blacktop to forgotten dirt trails, to live among these rolling hills and breathtaking valleys means learning by heart every bend, bump, and bridge along the way.
This second installment of our tour through Clay County's historic markers takes us to the county seat in Ashland Alabama's beautiful downtown square where two highways meet. Standing upon the western side of the courthouse lawn one finds this impressive marker:

   As all well written markers should, this inscription leaves the reader inspired with more questions than answers. It seems that thanks to the major trails and roads of the day Clay County became a frequented spot for many influential people whose lives shaped the history of the early southeastern U.S. Some of them i.e. Andrew Jackson, Sequoya, and McIntosh would leave their mark on millions changing the history of both the nation and the world. And they found their way here to what is now our beloved Clay County traveling the same paths that would become many of our current roads and highways.
 One of the most important roads of Andrew Jackson's day, as mentioned in our marker above, was the McIntosh road:
  The original McIntosh Road, also called, in Alabama, the “Georgia Road,” led from Talladega, Alabama northeasterly, then running along the south side of the Choccolocco Valley and crossing the ridge which contains Cheaha Mountain at a pass some miles north of Cheaha Mountain, then running through the area of modern Hollis Crossroads and crossing the Tallapoosa River at an Okfuskee Village then continuing on in a southeasterly direction to the Chattahoochee River near modern Whitesburg, Georgia in Carroll County.
The road continues today along its original axis in Talladega and Calhoun County in Alabama and the original track virtually disappears as it enters the mountains of Cleburne County. It was named for a Creek Indian chief who was involved in its construction or improvement in the early 19th century, William McIntosh, who was half Creek and half Scottish. The road was also the route of invasion of Union regiments under General Croxton in April 1865. The eastern terminus was at McIntosh's Ferry near the McIntosh Plantation known as “Lochau” or “Lockchau Talofau” on Acorn Bluff. Today McIntosh Reserve Park in Carroll County, Georgia is located at the eastern end of what was once the McIntosh Road.
This road was perhaps 80 miles north of the Federal Road from Washington, through Georgia, to New Orleans. President Thomas Jefferson discussed the benefits of providing provisions and lodging for travelers with McIntosh during a meeting November 2, 1805, and McIntosh obviously listened.^[1]Benjamin W. Griffith, McIntosh and Weatherford, Creek Indian Leaders (University of Alabama Press, 1998) ISBN 0-8173-0340-5 (Page 60) (via Wikipedia).

 For modern day explorers like myself, here's an excerpt from a page dedicated to walking the McIntosh road today:

Like a former day I-20, the old McIntosh Road crosses the 20 South Region from the Ocmulgee River on the eastern border of Butts County to the western border of Carroll County and the Alabama state line, a total of about 118 miles. Some historians believe the trail is at least a thousand years old, a path beaten down by the animals and Indians who used it to make their way to better hunting grounds or the rivers and creeks that dissect it. Others believe it was completely constructed by Chief William McIntosh, the principal chief of the Lower Creek Nation, at the behest of the U. S. Government in the early 1800s as a trading route.

Coordinates, directions, and much more here at the link:

http://sherrismithbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/TBRMcIntoshTrail.pdf


The other road mentioned in our marker is the Chapman road. Here's a brief excerpt from local author/historian Don C. East about the history of the road:

   The Chapman Road began as Creek Indian trails known as the Weogulfga-Okfuskee and the Hillabee-Cusetta trails. These trails went eastward from the Coosa River, near present day Weogulfga, Alabama to the vicinity of the Hillabee town and then connected southward to Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River south of New Site.
   In the spring of 1814, Davy Crockett, one of Gen. Jackson's scouts, located the hostile Red Stick Creeks gathering at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River. Jackson then had his engineers widen the old Indian trails to accommodate the supply wagons and cannon. After this difficult task was accomplished in only three days, Jackson then marched his troops from Fort Williams on the Coosa to the final battle of the Creek Indian war of 1813-14 at the Horseshoe. The Chapman road covered a distance of about 52 miles. A decade and a half later, many of the departing Hillabee Creek Inidians left their last tracks in the Chapman road on their one-way march into the setting sun. This artery was later improved to accommodate the flood of white pioneers moving into the area, mostly from Georgia. The route officially became known as the Chapman Road. One version of the origin of the name was it was named after one of Jackson's staff members. A more likely version indicates it was named after John A. and Simeon Chapman, who made a western section of the artery into a toll road in 1829. These Chapman's were early Coosa County settlers and could have served with Andrew Jackson in the Creek Indian War of 1813-14, after which they returned to claim bounty lands.
   Parts of the Chapman Road still exist today and a section of it is intact in southern Clay County, bearing the same name.

*A Historical Analysis of the Creek Indian Hillabee Towns: And Personal Reflections on the Landscape and People of Cay County Alabama By Don C. East.  iUniverse, copyright 2008.

Pick up a copy of his book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Analysis-Creek-Indian-Hillabee/dp/144010154X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406306035&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Historical+Analysis+of+the+Creek+Indian+Hillabee

What I've mentioned here of these two roads is only a small sampling of all we know of them and their impact on our area. Like the roads themselves, once you get started wandering down the path of research they take you to places near your heart as well as places you'd never expect. There's so much more to be known about Clay County and it's mysteries; so much is left to be revealed, farther down the road.