The Old Federal Road crossed at this location and helped open the southeastern United States to settlers. In 1805, the United States Congress granted funds to build a post road from Georgia to New Orleans through the sparsely settled wilderness of Creek Indian Territory. Beginning as a Native American path and then a narrow horse trail used to carry the U.S. mail, it underwent great development, became a major military road, and became the main stagecoach route for travelers through Alabama. Many people passed this way, including Revolutionary War hero Marquis de La Fayette in 1825, British artist and writer Basil Hall in 1828, British actor William Grattan Tyrone Power in 1834, showman P.T. Barnum in 1837, the father of geology Charles Lyell in 1846, and thousands of Native Americans as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, along with soldiers, farmers, tradesmen, adventurers, herdsmen, peddlers, vagrants, gamblers, and speculators. In 1802, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles of land through the Louisiana Purchase, doubling its size, and the Federal Road provided a shorter route from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans and the new territory. In 1805, the United States government signed the First Treaty of Washington, also called the Treaty with the Creeks 1805, authorizing settlers to traverse Creek homelands. In Alabama, the road ran westward from Fort Mitchell to Uchee, continuing through Fort Bainbridge to Montgomery, and finally on to St. Stephens, near Mobile. The 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson made much of the fertile Creek and Yuchi lands available to settlers for producing cotton and other crops, and the lure of Alabama Fever brought many thousands of settlers to Alabama. Nearly two centuries later, sections of the Old Federal Road remain evident and passable, and traces can still be seen and traveled east and west of this spot.