TRAIL OF TEARS PARK TO BE CERTIFIED FOR NATIONAL TRAIL

Trail of Tears State Park north of Cape Girardeau is one of five sites to be certified this year as a historic site along the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.

The 1,200-mile-long land and water trail that extends over nine states follows the paths taken by 5,000 Cherokee Indians who were forcibly removed in 1837-1839 from their tribal homelands in the East to a reservation near Tahlequah, in northeast Oklahoma.

The plan that created the historic trail was approved by Congress several years ago, but has never been adequately funded, said a spokesman for the National Park Service.

A portion of the land trail crosses the Mississippi River at what is now Trail of Tears State Park. The park was created in the late 1950s and named in memory of the Cherokee's forced relocation, during which hundreds died from hardships along the trail.

David M. Gaines of the National Park Service at Santa Fe, N.M., is program manager of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. Gaines said the park service has concluded memorandums of understanding with about two-thirds of the nine states. Missouri is not one of them.

H. Riley Bock of New Madrid, president of the Trail of Tears Association, created in 1993 to assist in the development of the trail, said the holdup in approval of the memorandum apparently is in the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in Jefferson City.

The memorandum is an important step in the development of the trail. After it is signed, the park service can use its resources to assist the states in development of the trail and interpretive centers.

Certification of the historic sites along the trail, such as Trail of Tears State Park, will allow the park service to work with the states in the preparation of exhibits, signs and logos pertaining to the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.

Greg Henson, assistant superintendent at Trail of Tears State Park, said National Park Service certification will make Trail of Tears State Park nationally known as a site along the trail. "We already get a lot of visitors who travel the entire length of the Trail of Tears," said. "They stop at the visitors center to see our interpretive displays and exhibits.

"Certification will also give our visitors center and displays the National Park Service stamp of approval that they are an accurate and factual portrayal of the history and long journey of the Cherokee."

Henson said the park and the visitor center is already attracting national media attention to the displays and exhibits. "Time-Life Books is going to use information and photographs we sent them for their series on Indians of the southeastern United States," said Henson. "A film crew from the The Discovery Channel was at the park this past spring to shoot footage of our displays and exhibits and some outdoor scenes in the park. They also shot some film along the river where the Cherokees crossed into Missouri. They also interviewed our park historian, Marie Exler."

Henson said footage taken in the park will be used in part two of the Discovery Channel's "How The West Was Lost," scheduled for airing in early 1995.

Financially, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail took a giant step forward this year when Congress appropriated an additional $750,000 for administration of the park service's national trails. Gaines said $40,000 of that was earmarked for Trail of Tears operations.

The $40,000 will now appear as a recurring line-item in future annual budgets, something Gaines said is a major accomplishment. "In the past, we never had line-item funds before, and had to depend entirely on contingency or discretionary funding for the Trail of Tears," he said. "Our goal is to obtain full base funding for the trail to the minimum amount of $250,000, which was the estimate provided in the Trail's Comprehensive Management and Use Plan."