Chief Ladiga Trail

The Chief Ladiga Trail is a rail trail in Alabama. It is the state's first rail trail project.HistoryTrail backgroundThe 33mi trail stretches from the Alabama-Georgia state line to Weaver. The Chief Ladiga is on the same rail corridor as the Silver Comet Trail in Georgia as far as Piedmont, Alabama. From there it parallels an abandoned Southern Railway line for a few miles west of town until it leaves the old Seaboard rail line, heading south on the Southern Railway route until the trail ends just north of Anniston. As of August, 2007, pavement is continuous between the Ladiga and Comet trails. A new gateway marks the connecting point at the state line. Now that the Chief Ladiga and the Silver Comet trails are connected, there is a 90mi paved corridor for non-motorized travel from just west of Atlanta, Georgia to Anniston, making it the 2nd longest paved trail in the U.S. (the longest being the Paul Bunyan in Minnesota.)Chief LadigaChief Ladiga was a Muscogee chief who relinquished his tribe's lands when he signed the Treaty of Cusseta in 1832. The Treaty was part of a broader policy of indian removal perpetrated by the Jackson Administration. Ladiga sold half his land (which would later become Jacksonville) to speculators for $2000.