Trail of Tears project focus of local event
<p class="p1">The U.S. Forest Service/Shawnee National Forest and the National Trails Intermountain Region of the National Park Service are planning to co-host a public Trail of Tears Charrette for local stakeholders and interested community members. </p><p class="p1">A charrette is a meeting where members of the public come together to discuss and plan projects such as a new hiking trail. </p><p class="p1">The Trail of Tears Charrette will give the public an opportunity to listen to proposals and other participant’s ideas, as well as share their own ideas or designs with the rest of the group. </p><p class="p1">The Trail of Tears Charrette is scheduled to take place at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 1, at Jonesboro City Hall in Jonesboro.</p><p class="p1">Organizers said in a news release that the goal of the public meeting is to create one or more potential alternatives for an inclusive development and public interpretation of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail routes and resources in the project area. </p><p class="p1">In 1838, after much political wrangling, the Cherokee Tribe were forcibly and cruelly removed from their homes in the Smoky Mountains. </p><p class="p1">They were relocated to northeastern Oklahoma, where the Cherokee Nation lives today. </p><p class="p1">In order to reach their new assigned homeland, they were forced to travel overland from Georgia and eastern Tennessee across Kentucky, Southern Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas before reaching Oklahoma during the spring of 1839. </p><p class="p1">Organizers said that for this trail development and interpretation project, the area includes the two routes taken by the Cherokee when they left Jonesboro for the ferries on the Mississippi River. </p><p class="p1">One route follows State Highway 146 through Dug Hill and Ware, while the other extends in a southwesterly direction through Hamburg Hill and the Union County Refuge. </p><p class="p1">For more information or to download the Charrette Feedback Form, visit the Shawnee National Forest website at www.fs.usda.gov/shawnee or contact the Shawnee National Forest at 618-253-7114.</p><p class="p2"> </p>