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 Remnants of fort along Trail of Tears yield relics 
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Post Remnants of fort along Trail of Tears yield relics
COKER CREEK, Tenn. - It has been more than 170 years since the dark days of the Cherokees' forced removal from their lands in Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Twenty-nine forts were used by the U.S. government to gather and temporarily house the migrating Cherokee, along with their families and slaves.

Cities with names like Hayesville and Murphy in North Carolina, Calhoun in Georgia, Charleston in Tennessee, and Fort Payne in Alabama have been built over most of these sites, so most of the physical fortifications have disappeared.

But remnants of one fort have been discovered in East Tennessee.

Because the Monroe County family that owned the property never plowed the land or used it for development, Cherokee National Forest archeologists are finding a treasure trove of historic relics from the former location of Fort Armistead.

The U.S. Forest Service purchased the 26-acre site in 2005 from Kenneth and Kathleen Dalton, and archeologists and volunteers began using metal detectors and controlled excavations to search in a grid pattern for artifacts.

Forest Service archeologist Quentin Bass said that work has revealed locations of block houses, a parade ground, a powder magazine, barracks and storage pits, along with many articles discarded by soldiers and Cherokee housed at the site.

"No one outside of this area knew about the location, but it was carried down through oral tradition and by the Dalton family, who owned the land," Bass said.

Kathleen Dalton said they purchased the property as an investment and heard about rumors of the fort. But after finding artifacts at the site, they knew it should belong to the public trust; a grant through the Forest Service allowed the land to be purchased.

At the site is a portion of the original Trail of Tears, the removal path that 3,000 Cherokees from the mountains of Georgia, North Carolina and East Tennessee used to travel to the fort.

Part of the original Unicoi Turnpike, this section of the Trail of Tears - now a National Historic Trail - remains as it was more than 200 years ago, untouched by human development, said Tennessee Overhill Association Director Linda Caldwell.

"Fort Armistead is tied directly to the history of our state and nation," she said, adding that its location on the Unicoi Turnpike Trail and purchase by the Forest Service has presented an opportunity to research and interpret the site as part of the overall trail project from North Carolina to the end of the turnpike at Fort Loudoun, Tenn.

Bass said representatives of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes - the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians from North Carolina, the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Oklahoma - met at the fort's location about a year ago, and all were amazed at the beauty of the site that once was a tragic location.

A trail through time

The trail leading through Fort Armistead was used by American Indians for centuries and possibly by the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1540. It was the lowest gap through the Appalachians. Later, in the early 19th century, the trail was used to drive herds of cattle, swine and turkeys over the mountains to feed the eastern populations in South Carolina.

Commissioned as a commercial turnpike in 1816, stock stands were built every eight miles so livestock and drivers could rest overnight.

Once gold was located along Coker Creek in the 1820s, word spread among white prospectors, and they began to overrun the area as claim jumpers, Bass said.

So in 1832, the fort - the only federal military installation on Cherokee lands established before their removal - was constructed to protect the Cherokee and keep white settlers out of the area.

Just four years later in 1836, it went from serving as a fort to protect the Indians to becoming a military installation in the campaign to remove them. :gah :flame

"General Winfield Scott considered making this fort his main depot for the removal of the Cherokee," Bass said, but that location was later changed to Fort Cass - now Charleston, Tenn.

Archeologist Chris Bassett has helped with identifying block house locations. She said stone piles where chimneys used to stand are located at regular intervals; that helped in mapping out major portions of the fort.

'A magnificent gift'

Realizing the importance of the archeological find, the site - presently closed to the public - is monitored 24 hours a day for trespassers. :clap

Future plans are still being developed. Many Cherokees have advocated keeping the site strictly a walk-in location to maintain its solitude and reverence. Bass agrees, but said it will be up to Cherokee National Forest officials, in consultation with the Cherokees, as to how to manage the fort.

Meanwhile, walking along the trails created by 19th-century soldiers and passing by the numerous springs used by the Cherokee is like traveling back in time.

Rare species of mushrooms, herbs and medicinal plants once used centuries ago by Indians are still growing in abundance.

"This is a sacred place," Bass said, during a recent visit to the site. "It certainly represents a crucial, and tragic, part of the history of not only the Cherokee people, but also the entire nation. We have given ourselves a magnificent gift, and we should respect and preserve it."

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/nov/03/remnants-fort-trail-tears-yield-relics/

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Tue Nov 03, 2009 12:32 pm
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