Travel was vital in Polk County's early days, when Civilized Indians, particularly Creeks, Alabamas, Coushattas, and Kickapoos, were numerous and maintained many trails for intercommunication. Long King's Trace, named for a chief, led from Alabama villages through the site of present Livingston and past this location. The Coushatta Trace began in Louisiana, wound through what is now Polk County, and joined an ancient road into Mexico more than 100 miles west. The Alabama Trace branched off El Camino Real, The King's Highway, east of Nacogdoches and reached the site of the present Alabama-Coushatta Reservation. Indians also started many other local roads. After white settlement began in the 1820s, a Mexican-Indian trail became the Nacogdoches-Liberty Stagecoach Road. Settlers brought in goods by Trinity River boats and established 20 landings, or wharves, along the 72 miles of Polk County riverfront. Roads ran inland from these landings, while boats carried county produce for many years. Northeast of Livingston, the Old Israel Road took its name from a religious colony whose buildings have disappeared, and like many of the Indians, these people are remembered chiefly through the road's name.