Cherokee park’s start is reward for organizers’ work

BIRCHWOOD, Tenn. — A a wisp of smoke rose skyward as Cherokee descendants held a cleansing ceremony at the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park on Monday.

Standing by a small fire, Alva Crowe played his carved wooden flute in the spot where his ancestors waited 170 years ago to start their long walk on the Trail of Tears.

“It is a blessing with smoke, fire, water and earth,” he said.

A little while later, a crowd of distinguished guests helped break ground for an interpretive center at the former Blythe Ferry crossing on the Tennessee River. The site is where around 9,000 Cherokee and Creek Indians camped for months in 1838 before setting out on the forced march to Oklahoma.

Shirley Hoskins was among those who held a shovel Monday.

“My third great-grandmother, Annie Spears, was 11 when she was on the trail,” Mrs. Hoskins said. She remembers growing up in Oklahoma, but she said Cherokee children weren’t taught about the removal in literature or the classroom.

Mrs. Hoskins said she moved to Chattanooga with her husband and lived there for 15 years without knowing about the Cherokee removal.

But along with Shirley Lawrence and Gloria Schouggins, Mrs. Hoskins originated and pushed the idea for the memorial. She now lives in South Georgia.

“It is my dream that the names of those on the trail be remembered,” she said.

The $1.2 million visitor center will include a library and genealogy section along with a gift shop and restrooms. Construction on the 2,400-square-foot building is expected to take four months.

Money for the center is coming from $1.3 million federal appropriation secured by U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, both R-Tenn., along with a $277,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportation grant and about $70,000 from Meigs County.

Rep. Wamp spoke at the groundbreaking.

“There are two seminal mistakes made in the United States,” he said. “They are slavery and the Cherokee removal.”

He said the Trail of Tears only became part of the national trail system in 1987, and he and others are working to bring more attention to the trail and landmarks along the way.

Meigs County Mayor Ken Jones has also been a key player in establishing the park, dealing with various state and national agencies to get funding and permission for the park and river access.

“After all of this time, here we are,” Mr. Jones told the gathering.

He said plans call for a marble memorial wall atop a hill that overlooks the Tennessee and Hiwassee rivers. The wall will be engraved with the names of those who camped at the site, waiting to begin the Trail of Tears. More than 4,000 died along the way.

Rep. Wamp said he will seek permission from TVA to build a dock for river tours to stop at the park.

Mrs. Lawrence also was there Monday as shovels turned earth for the center.

“I have one word,” Mrs. Lawrence said. “Finally.”

MEMORIAL PARK FUNDING

Congress: $1.3 million

TDOT: $277,000

Meigs County: $70,000

Source: Meigs County Mayor Ken Jones