Public History · Research Phase · 2032
The Chief
Ladiga Trail
In 1832, the Creek Nation signed the Treaty of Cusseta under duress and was removed from Northeast Alabama. In 2032, the bicentennial arrives. This book argues for a reckoning, not a celebration — told through the people, places, and walking trails built on land that was taken.
The project
The Chief Ladiga Trail winds through Calhoun County, Alabama — named for a Creek chief who negotiated under impossible conditions and watched his people removed anyway. Hikers walk it on weekends. Almost none of them know what happened there.
The Southern Legends profiles are the raw material. Every profile of a business owner, a maker, a community figure in Northeast Alabama is also a story about land — who has it, who lost it, what was built on it. The CLT book will collect that thread and pull it tight.
2032 is the bicentennial of the Creek removal. That’s the deadline. The book argues that Northeast Alabama should spend the next decade preparing for a reckoning, not a celebration.
Historical nonfiction — public history, land, and memory.
Research phase. Long game. Target: 2032 bicentennial.
Southern Legends profiles — every profile is also a CLT chapter in waiting.
chiefladiga.org — the advocacy and walking campaign.
The author
Matt Headley
26 years in Calhoun County. Author of Southern Legends. Jacksonville, Alabama.
Follow the campaign
chiefladiga.org tracks the trail, the advocacy, and the 2032 reckoning.
chiefladiga.org