McNair's Stand on the Federal Road

Near this spot, on the old Federal Road, stood McNair's Stand, a noted stopping place where weary travelers could rest, buy supplies, and find a meal. It was run by David McNair, a man prominent in the Cherokee Nation. The Federal Road, opened through Cherokee country in the early eighteen hundreds, became a vital artery of commerce, and for about a generation flour, whiskey, and other goods moved steadily past this stand.

McNair is said to have helped keep a stretch of the road in repair. But the family was tied to the Cherokee Nation, and many in that nation were forced from their homes on the Trail of Tears in eighteen thirty eight. The family cemetery still survives at the south end of the old road, a quiet marker of a vanished world.