Giles County Trail of Tears Memorial

"Long time we travel on way to new land...Womens cry... Children cry and men cry... but they say nothing and just put heads down and keep go towards West. Many days pass and people die very much."

-Recollection of a survivor ...

The Trail of Tears Interpretive Center

The Trail of Tears Interpretive Center Popularly known as the Rock Church, this beautiful chapel of Gothic architectural design was constructed by native limestone and was dedicated as the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on August 10, 1941. A significant financial ...

The Trail of Tears

Cherokee Removal

A group of approximately 660 Cherokees traveled through McNairy County in late fall of 1838. Also called Bell's Treaty Party, it was the only detachment to be accompanied by the military. Escorted by U.S. Army Lt. Edward Deas and ...

Trail of Tears

Thousands of Cherokee Indians passed through Waterloo in the 1830s when they were forced by the U.S. government to move West on the "Trail of Tears". Most came by boat from Tuscumbia and camped here to await transfer to larger ...

Trail of Tears

Form the late 1700's to 1807 a Cherokee Chief named Doublehead guarded this area, that was claimed by both the Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations as sacred hunting grounds against encroachment of white settlers.

Chief Doublehead had the reputation of eating ...

Trail of Tears

Drane Overland Route

Early in the 1800's gold was found from Virginia to Alabama including a rich belt on Cherokee Indian land in what is now Dahlonega, GA.

causing a huge influx of miners and a land grab by new ...

Trail of Tears

?In May 1838 soldiers, under the command of U.S. Army General Winfield Scott, began rounding up Cherokee Indians in this area who had refused to move to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. About 16,000 Cherokees were placed in stockades in Tennessee ...

Trail of Tears

In May 1838 soldiers, under the command of Gen. Winfield Scott, began rounding up Cherokee Indians in this area who had refused to move to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). About 15,000 Cherokees were placed in stockades in TN and AL until ...

The Creek Trail of Tears

Approximately one mile due east of this marker, back down the Old Federal Road, called by frontiersmen and Indians the Three Notched Trail or the Three Chopped Way, stood Fort Mitchell, an early 19th century American fort that in 1836 ...

Military Road - Choctaw Trail of Tears

Cut from Washington, Ark., to Fort Towson in 1831 for removal of Choctaws from Miss., became known is Choctaw Trail of Tears after thousands of suffering Indians used it to reach new lands. Road served as major east-west artery for ...