Site added to historic trail

A Cherokee removal camp in Cedartown, Ga., has been added to the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail and is the first Georgia removal site on the trail, officials said.

Linda Baker with the Georgia Trail of Tears Association said the site was added after President Barack Obama earlier this year signed a public lands bill that included Georgia and North Carolina sites in the Trail of Tears.

"It's something we had been wanting for a long time, to get Georgia added to the trail. It's going to help us get sites certified a lot faster," Mrs. Baker said.

The U.S. military built 14 Georgia camps and forts for the Cherokee removal, according to information from the Georgia Trail of Tears Association.

The Cedartown site, established in 1838, is the southernmost camp or site on the Trail of Tears. A city park now occupies the site where Cherokee were rounded up before being forced to walk to Oklahoma.

The trail was established by Congress in 1987 and nearly doubled in size this year when President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Bill, Mrs. Baker said.

Cedar Town joins the Chief Vann House, the Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home, the Ross to Ridge Road, the Chief John Ross House and the New Echota State Historic Site on the list of official Trail of Tears certified sites in Georgia.