Tennessee - Trail of Tears

Every time I go on a solo road trip, I put together a loose itinerary with one or two places I want to visit each day, with about 4 or 5 hours of driving total for the day. This allows me time to visit other places as I come across them. On my recent road trip from Wisconsin to Atlanta, I kept seeing National Park Service signs on the side of the road for the Trail of Tears.

I first came across it in Alabama, near the Little River Canyon National Preserve, and the Fort Payne Cabin site where there once was a fort used during the Cherokee’s removal from the area.

A few days later, I came across signs for the Trail of Tears in northern Georgia and southern Tennessee. I checked the National Park Service site to find a location that I could visit, and found that I was close to the Red Clay State Historical Park, which is also on the NPS Trail of Tears.

The park is a nice, flat park with a few buildings. The visitor center had a 20 movie to watch, so I watched it and learned that the Cherokee in the area had been quite prevalent, but over time, their lands were either traded or taken away bit by bit. By the 1830’s, there was so little left, that the Cherokee used this piece of land for their tribal councils, and they mostly discussed how to keep the Cherokee Nation alive. In 1830, the Indian Removal Act had been put in place, but it had not been completely enforced yet in this area. In 1838, they were finally forced out.

The park has buildings that are similar to those that were used during the tribal council meetings, and has an eternal flame, to remember the Cherokees that were here.