TRAIL OF TEARS PARK AN IDEAL EARLY SITE FOR TRAIL

An advisory group's announcement here last week that efforts have begun to establish a national Trail of Tears historic trail should come as good news to residents of Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois, through which the trail passes.

Particularly encouraging was disclosure by members of the group, the National Trail of Tears Historic Trail Advisory Council, that Trail of Tears State Park north of Cape Girardeau stands a good chance for early certification as a site along the trail.

Council members said that beginning next year possibly five sites would become certified across the 2,220-mile Trail of Tears that goes through nine states. Certification, accomplished through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service, means the site would become an official part of the national historic trail.

Trail of Tears State Park should be strongly considered for early certification.

Certification would bring with it certain benefits, including national recognition and the availability of technical assistance from the National Park Service in maintaining and preserving the site. The Park Service also would provide assistance in interpretation of the significance of the trail.

The state already has made great strides toward interpretation. The Trail of Tears Visitors Center, constructed a few years ago, contains an excellent display depicting the sad flight of the approximately 15,000 Cherokee Indians who were forced by government treaty to make the trek from North Carolina to Oklahoma in 1838-39. The harsh winter claimed the lives of an estimated 4,000 Indians.

The Indians crossed the Mississippi River in the vicinity of the park, and set up camp on the Missouri side. The park, therefore, is appropriately named Trail of Tears, another favorable point for its early certification.

Members of the council said they will be negotiating trail-site certifications next year with the nine trail states, the Cherokee Nation, the U.S. Forest Service, the Corps of Engineers and others.

We hope to see early certification of Trail of Tears Park and encourage the overseers of both public and private land over which the entire trail passes to make it available as part of the national trail. The commemorative trail would assure that Americans do not soon forget the tragic fates of thousands of Chrokee Indians who were forced by the government to leave their homelands and head westward.