From Tate through Jasper to Talking Rock, this highway closely follows the Old Federal Road, northwest Georgia's first vehicular route linking Tennessee and Georgia across the Cherokee Country. Permission to open the route was granted informally by the Indians in 1803 and confirmed in a treaty of 1805. Emigrants from the lower Southeast traveled this course into Tennessee and Alabama. It became the first postal route of this section and was used by travelers going to the gold fields of North Georgia.