Prior to the American Civil War, area roads were few and undeveloped. Access from other regions was by horseback, wagon, or stagecoach on what became known as Old Wire Road, after the US Army ran a telegraph line from St. Louis, Missouri, to Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1859. In the late 1830s, the Trail of Tears, over which many Cherokee and other tribes moved on their way to Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory reservations, formed part of the roadway that would later be the Wire Road.