The Robinson Road crosses the Natchez Trace Parkway at milepost 135.5 in Leake County, about 11 miles west of Carthage, and it is the road that took the mail off the Natchez Trace. Congress funded it in 1821 to connect the new settlements around Columbus, on the Tombigbee, with the Natchez road and the settled part of the state, through more than 120 miles of Choctaw country. It is said to take its name from Raymond Robinson, who surveyed and built it. By 1824 it was being improved to carry the mail from Washington through Huntsville and Columbus to Jackson and Natchez, and the traffic of the northern Trace followed it.
The act of March 3, 1821 put $5,000 toward a road from a point near Turner Brashears' stand on the old Natchez road to a point at or near Columbus. In 1826 Congress added $15,000 for repairs, which made possible the first continuous stage service from Washington to New Orleans by way of Natchez. Innkeepers from the Trace moved their stands to the new road, and the Choctaw Agency moved too. In 1825 the agent, William Ward, wrote that when the agency was placed on the road there was not a house on it where a bushel of corn could be had.
When the segment was surveyed for the National Register in the 1970s, about 1,750 feet of roadbed remained on park land. West of the parkway it was sunk 12 to 14 feet deep with large pines growing in the bed; east of it the trace was 5 to 6 feet deep. A 200-foot middle section had been lost to old State Highway 16 and to the parkway itself. The segment was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1976.
Getting there
32.7100, -89.7092
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