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Pix of the day – Oct. 1

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By Staff Report October 1, 2014 1 min read

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Photo Gallery

Sculpture donated to Cherokee Removal Memorial Museum

Ray Hoskins, who carved a sculpture of Cherokee interpreter John Spears donated this week to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park in Meigs County, starts removing ropes from the piece after he and his wife, Shirley, hauled it to Tennessee from Atlanta.

A team of Meigs County inmates unload two sculptures, one of them early-1800s Cherokee interpreter John Spears, carved by former resident Ray Hoskins that were donated this week to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park in Meigs County. He and his wife, Shirley, hauled it to Tennessee from Atlanta on Thursday, Aug. 4. 2016. Shirley Hoskins is the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Spears.

A team of Meigs County inmates unload a sculpture of early-1800s Cherokee interpreter John Spears carved by former resident Ray Hoskins that was donated this week to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park. He and his wife, Shirley. Shirley Hoskins is the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Spears.

A team of Meigs County inmates unload a sculpture of early-1800s Cherokee interpreter John Spears carved by former resident Ray Hoskins that was donated this week to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park. He and his wife, Shirley. Shirley Hoskins is the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Spears.

A team of Meigs County inmates unload a sculpture of early-1800s Cherokee interpreter John Spears carved by former resident Ray Hoskins, at left, that was donated this week to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park. He and his wife, Shirley. Shirley Hoskins is the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Spears.

Shirley Hoskins, right, watches her husband, Ray, fix a feather to the top of a sculpture of Cherokee interpreter John Spears on Thursday. The Hoskins donated the sculpture, carved by Ray in the early-1990s, to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park. Shirley Hoskins is the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Spears.

Joy Montgomery, with the Texas Center for Regional Studies office in Dayton, Tenn., talks history with Shirley Hoskins, fourth great granddaughter of Cherokee interpreter John Spears. Spears served Cherokee Agent Return Jonathan Meigs in the early-1800s near the confluence of the Hiwassee and Tennessee Rivers. Hoskins and her husband, Ray, donated a sculpture of Spears to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park on Thursday.

Cherokee interpreter John Spears is represented by this sculpture donated Thursday to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park in Meigs County on Thursday was donated by former residents Ray and Shirley Hoskins. Shirley Hoskins is the fourth great granddaughter of Spears.

Cherokee interpreter John Spears is represented by this sculpture donated Thursday to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park in Meigs County on Thursday was donated by former residents Ray and Shirley Hoskins. Shirley Hoskins is the fourth great granddaughter of Spears. The piece was carved with a chainsaw and rasp in the early-1990s.

A marker was installed earlier this year to commemorate the historical events that happened during the lifetime of an oak tree at a roadside site near the entrance to Cherokee Removal Memorial Park. The tree is said to have lived during the time when Sam Houston, who gained favor with Cherokee Chief Jolly, and other shaped the history of Meigs County, the state "and points westward."

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