Year Erected: 1992

Marker Text:  The first vehicular and postal route of Georgia to Rossville was the Federal Road across the Cherokee Nation. Beginning on the southeast Indian boundary in the direction of Athens, Georgia, the thoroughfare led this way toward Nashville via Tate, Jasper, Talking Rock and Spring Place.

Formal permission by the Cherokees to open the road was granted in the 1805 Treaty of Tellico, Tennessee. Prior to that time the trace served as an Indian trading path to Augusta.

The earliest post office in northwest Georgia was established on this route at Rossville, on April 5, 1817 with John Ross as postmaster.