08/09/2026
Because there has been considerable interest regarding the location of Chief Ladiga's cabin following a recent post I shared from a page focused on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Alabama, I wanted to share a story that has been passed down through local memory.
Several years ago, my friend and mentor, the late Piedmont historian Gerald Whitton, shared with me a story from his childhood. At the time, Gerald was 91 years old and recalled that, as a young boy in the 1930s, he remembered seeing the remaining logs of an old cabin. He had been told by local residents that this was the site where Muscogee (Creek) Chief Ladiga had once lived. According to Gerald, the cabin stood along the Old Ladiga Road, just north of Piedmont and a short distance off present-day Highway 278. He remembered it being located near the Piedmont Water Works, within a grove of large pine trees.
Interestingly, a similar tradition appears in the Anniston Star of November 29, 1957, which states:
"Near what is now the town of Piedmont, there was a small settlement called Ladiga. It had a post office and several stores as early as 1842. According to legend, it was named for Chief Ladiga, who, before the removal of the Indians, built a log cabin at the point where the Rome-to-Wetumpka Trail passed."
