Robinson Road
Natchez Trace

The road crossing the Parkway follows the Robinson Road which was built in 1821, nearly all of it passing through the country of the Choctaw Indians. It joined Jackson, Mississippi and Columbus, center of the settlements on the Tombecbee. There it connected with Andrew Jackson's Military Road through Florence, Alabama to Nashville. Designation of the Robinson Road as the mail route in 1822, drew much of the traffic from the northern Mississippi section of the Natchez Trace, which quickly lost importance. No longer was the Trace the only direct road through the wilderness from the east to the old southwest.