PARK MAY EARN EARLY CERTIFICATION AS SITE ALONG NATIONAL TRAIL

The Trail of Tears State Park north of Cape Girardeau could be one of five areas that will receive early certification as a site along the 2,220-mile trail, which starts at Murphy, N.C., and crosses nine states, ending at Tahlequah, Okla.

"The management and use plan for the Trail of Tears includes 70 sites in its inventory," said Duane King of the National Park Service. "But we know there are other sites out there that we're not aware of."

King was one of three park service representatives who attended a meeting of the National Trail of Tears Historic Trail Advisory Council held in Cape Girardeau Thursday and Friday. The meeting was held as part of an effort to research and document parts of the actual route used during the forced move of native Americans from Georgia to Oklahoma in 1838.

"We'll look at several sites before certifying an initial five sites," said King, who is also chairman of the 21-member Trail of Tears advisory group.

The Trail of Tears is the route of a forced Indian march in 1838-39 when 14,000 to 15,000 Cherokees were forced by a government treaty to move west.

"When we get into the process of early certifications, we'll be looking heavily at existing Trail of Tears parks, especially those with interpretive centers," said King. "The park north of Cape Girardeau will certainly be among early considerations."

"The initial certifications will be more difficult for the Trail of Tears than it was for the Santa Fe Trail," added David Gaines, another member of the National Park Service. "We selected one site from each of the five states represented along the 1,200-mile Santa Fe Trail, which extends from Franklin, Mo., to Santa Fe, N.M.

"At least four states will be left out of initial certification for Trail of Tears," he added. "We have nine states represented along the trail but will have only five initial certifications."

Gaines of Santa Fe, N.M., is chief of the National Park Service' Southwest Region Office of the Branch of Long Distance Trails, and has been working with the establishment of the Trail of Tears and the Santa Fe trails.

More than a dozen members of the Trail of Tears Council attended last week's two-day session, which included a Thursday afternoon tour along trail sites between Golconda, Ill., and Cape Girardeau. A Cape County man, Robert Friedrich Jr. of Jackson, is a member of the advisory council.

The purpose of the two-day meeting was to focus on the implementation of a comprehensive management and use plan for the trail, fund raising, promoting public awareness and the formation of a Trail of Tears Association.

"The Trail Association will be an important part of implementing the plan," said King. "We'll also be working on cooperative agreements with the nine trail states within the next year."

Certifications are at least a year away.

"We have no funding for implementation of the trail plan at this time," pointed out King, who has provided much of the research that went into the management and use plan adopted by the advisory council.

"We adopted a resolution Friday to concentrate on preservation rather than certification during this first year," he added. "We hope to see initial funding for the trail by fiscal year 1994, and we want to be ready."

Members of the council were also urged to contact their respective state legislators and departments of transportation within the next year.

"We need to see if we can obtain state funding of any kind," said King. "Some departments of transportation may be making some allowances for trail roads."

The Trail of Tears started near the town of Murphy, N.C., and passed through the states of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas before ending in Oklahoma. Historians estimated that as many as 4,000 Indians died during the trip, made during the harsh winter months.

The Indians crossed the Mississippi River in the vicinity of the Trail of Tears State Park north of Cape Girardeau and set up camp on the Missouri side.

The next meeting of the council will be held next spring at a site to be announced later.