MOULTRIE, Ga. — The importance of the Thigpen Trail in the development of not only Georgia, but in the nation’s history was the focus for the day as the John Benning Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution recently met at the site of Colquitt County’s historic Thigpen Trail Monument. 

Located in the western part of the county, the chapter performed cleaning for the monument and the adjacent area.  Joining the DAR were members of the Children of the American Revolution whose newly founded society was named for the monument. 

Another goal of the group was to place a wreath in tribute to the DAR chapter’s early members who erected the monument in 1932 identifying the oldest road in Colquitt County, with Mrs. W.J. Vereen as regent, according to a press release from the Moultrie DAR chapter. 

Surveyor James Thigpen for whom the trail is named, cut the trail in 1704 under direction of Col. James Moore, former Carolina governor, as a means to transport military supplies, the DAR said. But the trail existed long before that time. It originally was a well beaten trail of the Indians from the mountains to the sea in use before the era of the white man. Coming from South Carolina above the Broad River, along the Chattahoochee water divide to the Gulf of Mexico, the trail avoided all swamps and great rivers. Before the Revolutionary War the British used the trail to drive out the Spanish from the Southwest Georgia territory. During the Revolutionary War, troops used it to march from North Carolina to Georgia into Florida.

Around 1800, early pioneer families in the area traveled the trail from the Carolinas to make a permanent settlement in this area. They endured many hardships and dangers to establish a farming and trading community. Originally a person could buy 490 acres for $5. Some settlers acquired their land by squatters’ rights and after occupying the land 20 years, they could obtain a title.