A historical group wants to use the “power of place” to remind locals and tourists of a Cherokee internment camp in LaFayette.

Jeff Bishop, president of the Trail of Tears Association Georgia Chapter, will meet with LaFayette City Council members Monday night to discuss adding the site of Fort Cumming to the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.

The site already has a sign at the corner of Indiana and Main streets in LaFayette, but Mr. Bishop said a more powerful exhibit would inform local residents and draw tourists.

At the fort, as many as 1,000 Cherokees were detained for a short period in 1838 before being forced westward to Oklahoma, historians say.

“It happened right here,” Mr. Bishop said.

Dr. David Boyle, vice president of the Walker County Historical Society, said the exhibit and the listing would be a strong reminder of a brutal but significant turning point in the county’s history.

“It was essentially a concentration camp for the ethnic cleansing of these people,” he said of Fort Cumming. “If it was going on today, that’s what it would be called.”

On Monday morning, Mr. Bishop will sign papers with officials in Cedartown, Ga., to certify a portion of the city’s park as part of the trail after the Legislature passed a bill allowing for the certification.

After LaFayette’s site, the group will move on to 13 other similar camps in North Georgia, he said.

“This is the next phase of interpreting the (Cherokee) removal in Georgia,” Mr. Bishop said. “We’re trying to determine what sites in Georgia would be high-impact sites.”

Officially listing Fort Cumming could add to Walker County’s already impressive draw for history buffs or people retracing their ancestors’ lives, he said.

Walker County Commissioner Bebe Heiskell said the region may be better known for Civil War history, but American Indian heritage was equally important. She said both, if marketed properly, could draw tourists to the county.

“We’re rich in Native American history, and we need to let the world know,” Ms. Heiskell said.