Chief Ladiga & the Chief Ladiga Trail

The Chief Ladiga Trail carries the name of a Muscogee (Creek) leader whose story is tied to this landscape. The modern trail follows a former railroad that once connected Atlanta and Birmingham and was later transformed into Alabama’s first major rail‑trail.

Chief Ladiga & the Muscogee (Creek) People

Long before Alabama statehood, the valleys and ridges around present‑day Piedmont were homelands of the Muscogee (Creek) people and other Indigenous nations. Chief Ladiga was a Creek leader whose town stood in what is now the Jacksonville area of Calhoun County.

In the early 1830s, U.S. policies and state pressure forced the Creek Nation to cede most of its remaining lands in east Alabama. Treaties allowed some leaders, including Ladiga, to select parcels of land for their families, but settler encroachment and removal policies soon displaced most Creek communities from the region.

Today, the Chief Ladiga Trail invites visitors to enjoy the landscape while also remembering the deeper Indigenous history and the stories that predate railroads and paved paths.

The Railroad Era

For more than a century, trains rolled through the same corridor now used by cyclists and walkers. The route that became the Chief Ladiga Trail was part of a rail line linking small towns and mills between Anniston, Piedmont and the Georgia line, and connecting ultimately toward Atlanta and Birmingham.

Freight trains moved cotton, timber, minerals and manufactured goods; passenger trains carried travelers, soldiers and families. Depots, sidings and section houses dotted the line, shaping the growth of communities like Piedmont.

From Rails to Trails

When rail service declined and the corridor was abandoned, community leaders saw an opportunity to preserve the route as a public greenway. Through land acquisition and trail funding, the corridor was converted into a paved multi‑use path now known as the Chief Ladiga Trail.

The trail stretches from the Anniston area through Jacksonville, Piedmont and rural countryside to the Alabama‑Georgia line, where it connects with Georgia’s Silver Comet Trail. Together, they form a long‑distance route that draws cyclists and walkers from across the Southeast.

Before 1830s: Muscogee (Creek) communities live and farm in the valleys around present‑day Calhoun County.

1830s: Creek lands are ceded and most Muscogee people are removed; settlers move into the area.

Late 1800s–1900s: Railroads connect Piedmont to the nation supporting agriculture and industry like the shoe factory that used to be on the site of Optimist Park and the Chief Ladiga Farmers Market.

Late 20th century: The rail corridor is abandoned and gradually converted into the Chief Ladiga Trail.

Today: The trail forms the backbone of an outdoor recreation corridor, bringing visitors to trail towns like Piedmont and to places like the Chief Ladiga Farmers Market.

A Trail Town Farmers Market

The Chief Ladiga Farmers Market sits in Optimist Park, directly beside the trail and behind Pinhoti Pizza Company. That location makes the market part of the ongoing story of this corridor—from Indigenous homelands, to railroad towns, to a modern trail that supports outdoor recreation, local food and downtown revitalization.