Lewistown Trail ran from Springfield to Galena by way of Lewistown and was one of the main routes to the Galena Lead Mines from 1827 to 1837. The trail crossed the Illinois River at Havana, where Ossian M. Ross, founder of Lewistown, operated a ferry. He was one of three men who surveyed and marked out the trail. In 1834, the Springfield-Lewistown section became a post road, and at that time Abraham Lincoln was postmaster at New Salem, one of the towns on the road.