New signs mark water route of Trail of Tears

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- New signs placed along New Madrid's riverfront now mark the Trail of Tears' water route of the Cherokee Indian tribes.

The National Park Service signs were erected by the New Madrid city employees earlier this month.

Carol S. Clark, interpretive specialist with the National Trails Intermountain Region of the National Park Service in Santa Fe, worked with local residents to design the signs to reflect the community's place along the Trail of Tears. Riley Bock, a member of the Trail of Tears executive committee and a native of New Madrid, along with New Madrid Historical Museum's board of directors partnered with Clark in creating the exhibit.

Clark said her interpretation of New Madrid's role began with a visit to the community.

"It is always better when you are there in first person," Clark said. "The power of the place is essential in planning an exhibit like this. It gives you an idea of what people feel when they see the exhibit, what they see, what they smell ..."

What she saw pleased her. While New Madrid's riverfront is developed, when visitors look across the river they see woods and sandbars, a view she said was probably what the Cherokee saw from their boats as they passed by nearly 175 years ago.

Two interpretive signs were placed by the Park Service. Clark describes one as a template panel, similar to those used at other sites. It details the travels by the Cherokee along the water route.

The second panel links the Trail of Tears to New Madrid.

New Madrid connection

Bock, who was appointed to the Trail of Tears Advisory Council in the early 1990s and served as the Trail of Tears Association's first president, said it wasn't until he became affiliated with the group that he learned New Madrid was on the nationally designated Trail of Tears water route. He said that while most of the detachments traveled overland, some traveled down the Tennessee and Ohio rivers to the Mississippi River continuing to the Arkansas River, where the boats would eventually reach what is now Oklahoma.

His research for the signs included census and local information. Bock said that at the time the boats required wood to fire their engines and would typically have stopped at communities such as New Madrid for lumber. Also, the river towns served as a point where medical services could be provided along with provisions for the Cherokees and their military escorts.

According to Bock, while the land route in Cape Girardeau County, home of the Trail of Tears State Park, is better known, one of the land routes in 1838 also crossed portions of what was then New Madrid County.

The entire story

Clark said that with the markers, the Park Service is trying to tell the entire story, beginning with signs at those sites where the Cherokee were rounded up to those along their routes and finally with the dispersal of the Indians in Oklahoma.

Knowing the entire story is essential, Clark said.

"It is important to know the effects we all have on each other. We are all a part of American history," she said. "Some events we are proud of, some we aren't as proud of, but it makes us part of this country."

By placing the signs and providing the information, Clark said the Park Service is hoping people will visit the spots, read some of the history and draw their own conclusions.

"We are planting a kind of seed about this part of the country: what happened here and their history. Maybe they will want to visit other places [along the Trail] and learn more," she said.

Understanding the history of the Trail of Tears provides insight into the early growth of the U.S. and can provide perspective about other events and even issues society faces today, Clark said, adding, "It is American history."

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For more information about the Trail of Tears or to see the New Madrid signs and others go to www.nps.gov/trte

Pertinent address:

New Madrid, Mo.