Trail of Tears: The Cherokee Removal, 1835–1838

New Echota was the capital of the Cherokee Nation from 1825. On 29 December 1835 a small group of Cherokee signed the Treaty of New Echota in the home of Elias Boudinot. The signers represented a minority; John Ross, who spoke for the large majority, objected. In 1838 the town became a camp called Fort Wool, and it is named as the starting point of the Trail of Tears. Today the site is a state park with a reconstructed Council House, Supreme Court and printer shop.

Visitor guidance: New Echota is a Georgia state historic site north of Calhoun with reconstructed buildings and a museum.

After leaving New Echota, the Cherokee made Red Clay their last eastern capital, from 1832 to 1838. Eleven general councils met here. On 2 February 1836 the council at Red Clay rejected the Treaty of New Echota. The Blue Hole Spring, which the Cherokee consider sacred, still flows on the grounds. Replicas of a farmstead, sleeping huts, a blacksmith shop and the council house stand here, and the Eternal Flame of the Cherokee Nation honors those who suffered and died during the removal.

Visitor guidance: Red Clay State Historic Park in southern Bradley County, Tennessee, has a museum, the replica council grounds and hiking trails.

Fort Cass, at present-day Charleston, Tennessee, served as the U.S. Army headquarters for the removal. General Winfield Scott took command here in 1838. That summer more than 4,800 Cherokee prisoners were held in camps nearby. Drought left the Tennessee River too low for the planned boats, so the march was postponed until September. Infectious diseases swept through the camps that summer. The last Cherokee left Fort Cass on 5 December 1838. Nothing remains of the fort or the camps today.

Location precision: Nothing remains of the fort or the camps, which stretched across the valley; the pin marks the fort's recorded location at Charleston.

Blythe Ferry, founded around 1809 by William Blythe and his Cherokee wife Nancy Fields, was a gathering point and crossing for the removal. It took several weeks to move the whole contingent over the Tennessee River, and the last detachment crossed on 12 November 1838. The ferry ran until July 1995. Its east bank is now part of Cherokee Trail of Tears State Park, with a memorial wall naming the Cherokee who were removed.

Visitor guidance: Cherokee Trail of Tears State Park is in Tennessee, on the Tennessee River.

Fort Gibson was a U.S. Army post in Indian Territory, and soldiers there increasingly dealt with people forcibly removed from the eastern states. Chief John Ross and his followers refused to acknowledge the government that the earlier Old Settlers had set up. At the height of removal its garrison was the largest in the nation. Removed Cherokees initially settled near Tahlequah, and about 4,000 died on the trek, mostly of disease, malnutrition and exposure in an unusually cold winter. Fort Gibson Historic Site is now run by the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Location precision: The Cherokee settled across the region near Tahlequah; the pin marks Fort Gibson, the army post that dealt with the arrivals.

Visitor guidance: Fort Gibson Historic Site is managed by the Oklahoma Historical Society.