The exhibits stand in a city park in Cedartown, Georgia - the location where the Cherokee were held at Cedar Town Camp. They commemorate three weeks of internment in May 1838 under conditions that left many of the Cherokee very ill or dead.
Less than a month later the Cherokee marched to New Echota, Georgia, then to a series of deportation camps in Tennessee, where they were organized into detachments for the walk west.
During the event, most attendees drove along a trail segment containing new Trail of Tears National Historic Trail Original Route signage (see photo). The signs were unveiled at Cave Spring, near the location where a Cherokee cabin was recently rediscovered during a building renovation.
Cherokee officials, including Chief Chad Smith and members of the Cherokee Supreme Court; local officials; Trail of Tears Association members; and more than one hundred others attended the ceremonies. The exhibits were made possible through the National Park Service's partnership with the Trail of Tears Association and its local members of the Georgia Chapter of the association, as well as the City of Cedartown and Polk County, Georgia.
For more, please visit: www.nps.gov/trte/historyculture/trte_exhibits_removal.htm
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
