CHARLESTON, Tenn. – An already active effort to rediscover and teach the Hiwassee area’s past is getting an additional boost from two sources.
Melissa Woody, vice president of the Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce’s Visitors and Convention Bureau, told the local historical society Sunday that plans for an interpretative greenway through Charleston to the Hiwassee River are moving forward.
Last week the Charleston City Commission signed on with consulting firm Dale McBride to produce a conceptual drawing with interpretive signs for the proposed eight-mile trail that would reflect the area’s Cherokee and other history. The greenway eventually will be an extension of the Cleveland/Bradley Greenway.
The drawing is important because it would give local residents an idea of what the trail would look like and be part of talks with TVA for land easements, officials said.
Russell Townsend, guest speaker Sunday for the Charleston/Calhoun/Hiwassee Historical Society, said the Cherokee Eastern Band might be able to help with those negotiations. Townsend is historian for the Eastern Band, based in North Carolina.
“This is at no cost to Charleston,” Woody said.
Dale McBride is the contractor putting together a growth plan through the year 2035 for local governments. The Cleveland/Bradley Greenway Board has the funds for the extra work, Woody said.
The historical society embraces both Calhoun in McMinn County and Charleston in Bradley County. The area holds a prominent but mostly forgotten place in early American history. It was the location of the U.S. government’s first Indian mission to the Cherokees, and Fort Cass was one of the largest points of departure for the Trail of Tears.
The historical society wants someday to have a visitors center here that would tell the entire Cherokee story and direct travelers to other Cherokee points of interest in the region.
Townsend said he and his staff, experts in archaeology, history and grant applications, could help the Hiwassee region in many ways to promote its past.
“I think we have as many documents on Cherokee culture as anybody but the Library of Congress, and it is accessible to all,” he said.
“I don’t think a lot of people realize the first Cherokee National Council was established right here,” Townsend told the audience. “This is where the Cherokee Nation was born. That’s a story I believe is worth telling.”