Alabama

Little River Canyon National Preserve is a place of beauty that is also host to stories of adversity and survival. Over 1,100 men, women, and children moved through the Little River area during the removal of the Cherokee and Muscogee (Creek) Indians. Cherokee John Benge led the Fort Payne group of American Indians over 798 miles on the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma, crossing the Little River above the falls near the present-day Highway 35 bridge.

In 1837, federal troops arrived in Wills Valley to establish a fort to remove removing the Cherokee Indians from the area. The cabin site is part of local property seized by the military for Fort Payne, one of over 20 removal forts (stockades) established in Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina. Research indicates the cabin belonged to Cherokee John Huss (Spirit the Preacher) and was built circa 1825.

Tuscumbia Landing was located at the western terminus of the Tuscumbia, Courtland, and Decatur Railway. During the summer of 1838, Cherokee detachments headed by Lt. Edward Deas and Lt. Robert H. K. Whiteley attempted to travel from Ross Landing, Tennessee, to Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, via the water route. These detachments floated down the Tennessee River to Decatur. They rode on the railway west to Tuscumbia Landing and then boarded boats headed downriver.

Decatur was one stop on the 1,000-mile journey west. The town witnessed 2,300 Cherokee pass through in 1837 and 1838. They arrived here on steamboats and flatboats in cramped, inhospitable conditions that allowed diseases such as typhus to spread. Once docked at Decatur Landing, the Cherokee boarded cramped train cars. Their journey continued west by rail to Tuscumbia Landing, the only example of a railway being used in Indian removal.

NOTE: Currently CLOSED until further notice. Manitou Cave of Alabama holds ceremonial significance to the Cherokee people due to its pure waters and underground chambers. During a guided tour, guests will learn about the cave's usage during peace and war with special emphasis on its connections to the Cherokee, Sequoyah, and the Trail of Tears. Guests will also learn why Manitou is unique in its geological features and biological diversity.

Waterloo Landing was an encampment along the Tennessee River during the Indian Removal in 1838. From here, detachments boarded steamboats and continued some distance on the Tennessee River west toward Paducah, Kentucky. 

In 1823 Cherokee leaders John Ross, Andrew Ross, and George Lowery persuaded the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to open a mission/school for the Cherokee in Willstown. Situated on the main road from Ross's Landing to Willstown, the property was adjacent to a council ground frequently used by the Cherokee during the 1820s and 1830s.

Two detachment routes passed through today’s Lake Guntersville State Park. Several detachments of Cherokee on the water route used the Tennessee River, which was later dammed and is now Lake Guntersville. The Benge Route (a land route) left Fort Payne and crossed the river, heading west towards modern Huntsville, Alabama. The Benge Route traveled across Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas to reach Indian Territory (today’s Oklahoma).

In 1837, federal troops arrived in Wills Valley to establish a fort to remove removing the Cherokee Indians from the area. The cabin site is part of local property seized by the military for Fort Payne, one of over 20 removal forts (stockades) established in Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina. Research indicates the cabin belonged to Cherokee John Huss (Spirit the Preacher) and was built circa 1825.

Three detachments of Cherokee, totaling about 2,800 people, traveled by river past this location to Indian Territory. The first of these groups led by Lieutenant Edward Deas left on June 6, 1838 by steamboat and barge from Ross Landing, present-day Chattanooga, Tennessee. They followed the Tennessee River, Ohio River, Mississippi River and the Arkansas River and arrived near Fort Coffee on June 19, 1838.