Trail of Tears National Historic Trail Trail News Downtown Memphis to Host TOTA Conference in October On the afternoon of Tuesday, October 7, 2014, following a wayside unveiling, conference participants will board a Mississippi riverboat for a cruise narrated by celebrated Memphis historian and tour guide Jimmy Ogle. The following afternoon’s activities, sponsored by the Choctaw Nation, include a tour of the museum and grounds of Chucalissa Archaeological site, followed by a traditional Choctaw meal prepared by a team of cooks under the direction of TOTA Vice President Sue Folsom. Storyteller Lori Robins, representing the Chickasaw Nation, will cap off that evenings events. Featured speakers for the conference include Dr. Dan Littlefi eld, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Kirk Perry, Chickasaw Nation culture and humanities department, who will speak on Chickasaw image courtesy of the NPS History; and Dr. Brett Riggs, who will do The 19th Annual TOTA Conference in Memphis will include a dedication of a new Trail of Tears National presentations on Muscogee Creek history Historic Trail wayside exhibit about early removal and the water route in the Memphis area. The wayside is and the Natchez Tribe. on the waterfront in Tom Lee Park. Missouri City to Receive 7 Wayside Exhibits The City of Waynesville, Missouri, and INSIDE THIS ISSUE NTIR are working with contractors to produce seven wayside exhibits for Laughlin Park. One upright orientation exhibit and • Executive Director Report................. 2 six low-profi le site specifi c exhibits will • Missouri KMZ File Project................. 2 cover many aspects of the Trail of Tears, including the known encampment along • TOTA Chapter News.................... 4-5 Roubidoux Creek. First round design • TOTA Conference Registration......... 7 concepts are being reviewed. The exhibits are scheduled to be installed by March 2015. image courtesy of the NPS (Funded through the Challenge Cost Share The City of Waynesville is in the draft stages of a Program) plan for seven Trail of Tears wayside panels. Newsletter of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail Partnership • September 2014 – Number 23 Trail of Tears Association Executive Director’s Message I am taking a break from planning the Missouri Chapter Board Representative community eff ort, which created a memorial 2014 conference in Memphis to thank Denise Dowling is the superintendent to the Cherokees who were dispossessed of all the chapter offi cers and members at the park, and we utilized this time for their well established farms in this area of who have helped me in this transition. I preliminary organization of the 2015 suburban Atlanta. offi cially began work for the Trail of Tears conference, which will include a visit to the Association on May 12th, but orientation Trail of Tears Park. The 3rd week of August I spent a couple of with my predecessor Jerra Quinton Baker very rewarding, but also very intense, days in began several weeks beforehand. She has On June 3rd I attended the dedication of orientation with National Park Service staff continued to be generous with her time and a research room at Northeast Alabama at the Long Distance Trails Offi ces in Santa experience these fi rst several months I have Community College near Fort Payne to Fe, New Mexico. been on the job. honor past Alabama Chapter President Gail King. The following Wednesday I was the I am looking forward to seeing everyone in It has been a rigorous time. Planning for dinner speaker for a teacher workshop in Memphis in October! the chapter capacity building workshops Little Rock, themed “The Trial of Tears to in Springfi eld, Missouri, and in Dalton, the Train of Tears,” hosted by the Butler Troy Wayne Poteete Georgia, the week of June 16th occupied Center and sponsored by the Arkansas much of my fi rst few weeks. The Saturday Humanities Council. before Memorial Day found me at Trail of Tears State Park in Cape Girardeau, I spoke at a dedication ceremony in Missouri, where I talked about “Before Roswell, Georgia, on July 19th. The Roswell and After the Trial of Tears” to a full house. County Historical Society spearheaded the Map Collector Bill Ambrose Working to Obtain Accurate KMZ Files for Missouri Trail of Tears by Deloris Gray Wood in Missouri. Anything that might be gleaned Each fi le was a large format negative box from his eff ort could be adapted by the other containing the color separation negatives Dr. Bill Ambrose made a presentation from 26 national historic and scenic trails located used to burn the plates for printing the color his private map collection to a group of across the nation. quadrangle maps. What was most exciting about 18 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was that under the fi ve color separation employees at their monthly “Need to As a private citizen, historic map collector, negative sheets were the fi eld notes that Know” video conference with the Colorado and student of the trail, Dr. Ambrose’s a surveyor made during his on-site study. USGS offi ce on Thursday, June 20, 2014. presentation to government mapmakers These documents were typed transcriptions Dr. Ambrose was there representing the made this meeting of the minds most of the surveyor’s original handwritten notes. Missouri chapter board of the Trail of Tears interesting. He cited examples of campsites Also located in the USGS archive are the Association. He serves as the chapter’s and trail segments used along the Trail of records of the survey corners. information technology committee Tears in his presentation to tell the tragic chairman. story of the Cherokee removal across On the other side of the aisle were the aerial Missouri. photos of the sites. The fie ld notes and the This same presentation will be given by Dr. photographs were done in diff erent years in Ambrose at the Trail of Tears Association A question and answer session followed each state. Conference in Memphis in October. the formal presentation which led to a closer look at the trail in Missouri and how One constraint at USGS is that there is Dr. Ambrose is on a mission to get accurate USGS could possibly help Missouri chapter a small area where documents can be KMZ files of certifi ed sites and original members get more certifi ed sites. From that examined. Thus, very few people can work trail segments to apply to a multitude of Q&A, two other chapter board members, at one time. It is in a work area where people georeferenced mapsets following the Trail Nancy Feakes of Mark Twain National are at work on their separate projects and of Tears across Missouri. Interpretation Forest and Deloris Gray Wood of the are very busy. of the trail would then be available on a Missouri chapter, were invited to view the Missouri chapter website, downloadable USGS Photographic Library. The Missouri chapter would like to thank to a device for in-fie ld trip guidance Dr. Ambrose for his presentation and interpretation. Finding additional sites off ers In the archives were the file boxes of the looks forward to seeing a revised version more interpretation opportunity, hopefully quadrangles for each state. We stood beside of the information in at the Trail of Tears followed by stewardship of the Trail of Tears the area where Arkansas started the fi les. Association Conference next month. 2 Trail of Tears National Historic Trail News • September 2014 Vision Becoming Reality TOTA State Chapter Contacts Using Partnerships to Develop Alabama Sharon Freeman the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail Phone: 205-534-0670 Email: [email protected] In 1987, Congress acknowledged the Historic Road from Ross to Ridge’s, GA signifi cance of this tragic event in our Hiwassee River Heritage Center, TN Arkansas nation’s history by establishing the Trail James Brown Cherokee Plantation, TN John McLarty of Tears National Historic Trail. The Jentel Farm Trail Segment, IL Phone: 479-751-7125 National Park Service administers the John Martin House, TN Email: [email protected] trail in cooperation with federal, state, John Ross House, GA Georgia and local agencies; the Cherokee Nation Junaluska Memorial and Museum, NC Lake Dardanelle State Park, AR Dola Davis and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Phone: 706-864-3432 Indians; interested groups; and La Petite Roche, AR Laughlin Park, MO Email: [email protected] private landowners. Mantle Rock, KY Illinois Maramec Spring Park/Massey Iron Works, MO The Trail of Tears Association and the Sandy Boaz McGinnis Cemetery Trail Segment, IL National Park Service, National Trails Phone: 618-833-8216 Mount Nebo State Park, AR Email: [email protected] Intermountain Region, Santa Fe have Murrell Home, OK been working with trail partners to Museum of the Cherokee Indian, NC Kentucky increase visibility for the trail and to New Echota State Historic Site, GA Alice Murphree develop it for visitor use. Old traces, Paducah Waterfront, KY Phone: 270-886-5375 historic buildings, and other resources Petit Jean State Park, AR Email: [email protected] are being preserved. Many sites have Pinnacle Mountain State Park, AR been certifi ed and numerous on-the- Port Royal State Park, TN Missouri ground projects have been completed, Radford Farm, KY Deloris Gray Wood such as route signing, visitor-use Red Clay State Historic Area, TN Phone: 573-729-2545 development, interpretive wayside Rockdale Plantation/George Adair Home, GA Email: [email protected] exhibits, and interior museum exhibits at Running Waters, John Ridge Home, GA existing facilities. Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, TN North Carolina Snelson-Brinker