Helena and The Trail of Tears
The Water Route to the Indian Territory
"The steamer Warren brought news... of the loss of the steamboat Monmouth, and the death of at least one-half of her infamously crowded passengers. This fatal, and most appalling, accident arose from a collision between these two boats; but from the best intelligence we can procure the blame rests upon the Monmouth, ... Six hundred {Creek} were jammed into this boat... and three hundred have perished."
Here, Helena residents of the 1830s watched tens of thousands of Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Chickasaw pass by as they traveled the Mississippi River. Passengers on steamboats, flatboats, and keelboats, they were on their way to the Arkansas River, and ultimately, to Indian Territory- what is now Oklahoma.
Thousands would die, victims of the hardships of the forced relocation from the southeastern United States.
Helena, founded in 1820, was a bustling port by the time the removal detachments passed by while traveling west on the Mississippi River to Indian Territory.
Marker is on Missouri St..
Courtesy hmdb.org
