During the early 1800s, a famous network of roads was developed in north and central Florida to help the U.S. Army, civilians and Seminoles traverse what became Marion County.
A close look at a map compiled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of the area in 1839 shows roads spreading out from Fort King like spokes on a wagon wheel. The most important of these roads was the military road that stretched from Fort Brooke on the north end of Tampa Bay to Jacksonville. It passed by both the Seminole Agency and Fort King.
Another road went northwest from Fort King to Fort Drane, near present-day Irvine, and then on to Fort Micanopy.
One of two major roads that went west out of Fort King passed through Fort Hook near present-day Cotton Plant in western Marion County and on into Levy County. The second road heading west dipped south towards Camp Izard, near where present-day State Road 200 crosses the Withlacoochee River, and then west along the river to Fort Clinch, located west of present-day Dunnellon.
What came to be known as "the old river road" ran along the east bank of the Ocklawaha River until it was turned over to the U.S. Forest Service by the Marion County Commission in 1939, to become part of the Ocala National Forest.
This road was opened in 1836, by Lt. Col. Fannin of the 4th Artillery, stationed at Fort King at the time. Originally, the road ran east out of Fort King to Palatka.
On leaving the fort, the road swung north to pass by Silver Springs and then went across the Ocklawaha at Sharpe's Ferry to Fort Fowle on the east bank of the river.
The road then turned north at Fort Fowle and paralleled the river until it crossed the Ocklawaha across from Orange Springs near Fort Brooks and then continued northeast into Palatka.
Later, the road was extended south out of Fort Fowle to near Moss Bluff and then turned east below Lake Bryant and the present route of State Road 19 to Volusia on the St. Johns River (the present-day town of Astor).
The Fannin Road was used as a wagon trail and by the timber industry until the 1930s.
Later in the 1830s, another road was opened on the west side of the Ocklawaha from Fort King to Orange Springs, where it joined the Fannin Road. This route, sometimes called "the old base line road," went through Coe-Hadjo's town near present-day Burbank and on to Fort MacKay, now known as Fort McCoy.
Two other roads would cross the future Ocala National Forest, including the Eustis Road, which ran south out of Volusia to Fort Armstrong, near the site of the Dade Massacre in Sumter County, where it joined the military road to Tampa Bay. The other was the Churchill road, which ran north from Volusia past the west end of Lake Kerr to Orange Springs, where it joined the Fannin Road.