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Old Federal Road

Whitfield County · dedicated 2001 · Located at the intersection of Cleveland Highway (Georgia Route 71) and Old Prater Mill Road (Old Georgia Route 2) in Varnell.

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* The highway crossing east and west at this point is the Old Federal Road, northwest Georgia's earliest vehicular route. It led across the Indian County from the southeast boundary of the Cherokees, in the direction of Athens, toward Nashville via Rossville. Another branch ran from a fork at Ramhurst, Ga., toward Knoxville, Tenn. Formal permission to use the trace was granted by the Cherokees in the 1805 Treaty of Tellico. This way was the first postal route of this section of Georgia and was the earliest emigrant trace from the lower Southeast to Tennessee and north Alabama.

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Example

under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

From one family's 77-marker roster

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This marker is part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program, administered by the Georgia Historical Society. Marker texts and locations come from the Society's own marker database.

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