Old Agency Road, named for the Choctaw Indian Agency once located in the area, preserves part of the original road system that formed the old Natchez Trace, the narrow route linking Natchez to Nashville in the early days of the nation and traveled by early settlers and notable figures. In 1801, the U.S. Army began widening the Agency Road, and in 1806 Congress appropriated funds to improve the Natchez Trace for use as a post or mail route, leading many maps of the period to identify it as Post Road. Its sunken roadbed and high earthen banks recall that earlier road, and it is also considered a canopy road because trees line both sides. Old Agency Road is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was designated a Mississippi Landmark in 1988, and its historic character and natural beauty were further protected when the City of Ridgeland adopted the Old Agency Road Corridor Preservation District on February 6, 2001. Mail service on the route was demanding: a postrider left Nashville at eight o'clock on Saturday night, the mail was due in Natchez ten days and four hours later, and the return trip required three weeks, with the rider carrying a blanket, a half bushel of corn, and a tin trumpet in addition to letters, government dispatches, and newspapers.
