1828 Cherokee Nation
At its height, the Cherokee Nation ranged from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River, and from the
Ohio River to the Piedmont of present-day Georgia and Alabama, an estimated area of 5,000 square miles.
Map of Pickens County
Stretching from the southeast corner of the county and
moving northwest, the Old Federal Road was the major route through the Cherokee Nation beginning in 1805. Running
from James Vann's ferry across the Chattahoochee River to John Ross's ferry across the Tennessee River, the Old
Federal Road had begun its demise by the time Pickens County was formed.