The Chief Ladiga Trail was named for a Creek Indian leader who signed the Cusseta Treaty in 1832. Under the terms of that agreement, the Creeks gave up claim to their remaining lands in northeast Alabama. Because Cheif Ladiga had signed the treaty, he was allowed to select some land in Benton County, Alabama for his wife and himself. (Parts of Benton County later became Cleburne and Calhoun Counties.)

A year after the treaty, Ladiga sold part of his holdings for $2,000 to a group of speculators headed by Charles White Peters. That land later became Jacksonville. Jacksonville, first called Drayton, was established in the early 1800s on the site of Chief Ladiga's trading post. In 1834 the town was renamed in honor of Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States. 

After selling the land, Ladiga and his wife moved to the Cherokee Nation and settled near what is now Piedmont.