TUSCUMBIA – A multi-year celebration to commemorate the Bicentennial of Jackson’s Military Road kicks off April 22-23 in Tuscumbia.
The Tuscumbia celebration includes living history programs at Spring Park and the Historic Stagecoach Stop, tours of Belle Mont Mansion and a walking tour of the downtown area. The events are sponsored by Sponsored by the Natchez Trace Parkway Association, Colbert County Historical Landmarks Foundation and Colbert County Tourism and Convention Bureau.
The living history events at Spring Park and the Historic Stage Coach Stop, 301 S. Dickson St., begin Friday, April 22 with a school day program for area students from 10 a.m. – noon. After hour tours of Belle Mont Mansion, 1569 Cook Lane, Tuscumbia, will be at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. April 22. A walking tour of historic downtown Tuscumbia begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 23 at ColdWater Books, 101 6th St. Living history demonstrations at Spring Park and the Historic Stagecoach Stop will be from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. April 23. Admission free for the living history programs and walking tour. Admission for the Belle Mont Mansion tours is $10.
For more information about the school day events, call Gale Satchel at 256-386-8565. For details about the tours of Belle Mont Mansion, call 256-381-5052. For more information about the walking tour, call Colbert County Tourism at 256-383-0783. For information about other events, call Lisa Pace at 256-366-6796 or visit 
http://natcheztrace.org/category/living-history.
Pace, an organizer of the celebration, said Jackson’s Military Road was one of America’s first large-scale road construction projects and that it played a major role in attracting settlers to northwest Alabama and Mississippi.
Development of Jackson’s Military Road began after the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 when General Andrew Jackson expressed the need for faster route from Nashville to New Orleans. In 1816, the U.S. War Department authorized Jackson to appoint and engineer and begin procuring equipment to use during the construction of the road that would improve military movements between Nashville and New Orleans. Construction of the route began in 1817, with 300 American soldiers building the road that was completed on May 17, 1820 at the cost of $300,000. The new road, which was 483 miles long, was 200 miles shorter than the old Natchez Trace route that soldiers had used on the way to and from the Battle of New Orleans.
The new road crossed the Tennessee River at Florence. It entered Sheffield (first known as York Bluff) at “Jackson Hollow.” The road then passed near Atlanta and Columbia avenues as it moved southwest. The Military Road entered Tuscumbia on what is now Dickson Street.
During the Bicentennial Celebration, living historians will depict the surveying and construction of Jackson’s Military Road and explain its role in helping spur development of communities along its route, including the Shoals.
One of the businesses that sprang up along Jackson’s Military Road a single-pen, hand-hewn log cabin that reputedly served as a stage coach stop atop a hill that overlooks what is now Spring Park in Tuscumbia. The cabin was originally located across Dickson Street from its current location. Dickson Street is named for Michael Dickson, an early settler of Tuscumbia, Pace said.
Jackson’s Military Road allowed stagecoaches to travel between Nashville and New Orleans in 17 days. The Tuscumbia stagecoach stop was one of many stand built along the road to accommodate travelers who were using the route as the poured into northwest Alabama and Mississippi, she said.
The Bicentennial Celebration in the Tuscumbia is the first of many that will be held in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee
