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Cherokee Removal Memorial
Park/Blythe’s Ferry
6800 Blythe Ferry Lane
Birchwood
423-334-5850
www.meigscountytnchamber.org
Directions: From I-75, take TN 60 toward Dayton. Turn right on Shadden Rd. and follow signs.
In 1809, Cherokee William Blythe gained authorization to operate a ferry at the confluence of the Tennessee and Hiwassee Rivers. In 1819, Blythe renounced his allegiance to the Cherokee Nation and he and his son received a 640-acre reservation, which included the Blythe homestead and the ferry. Blythe’s Ferry transported nine Cherokee detachments, totaling about 10,000 people, across the Tennessee River from September through November, 1838 as part of the northern route of the Trail of Tears.
Cherokee Removal Memorial Park is open year-round and free to the public. Visitors are able to visit the park anytime, however should one want to see the visitors center, it is only open Wednesday - Friday from 10:00 am- 5:00 pm. A boardwalk leads to a wildlife overlook shelter on top of the bluff offering spectacular views of the river and Jolly’s Island. A granite wall dedicated to those that passed through the Trail of Tears flows throughout the park.
Story of Interest-
Sam Houston, Governor of the State of Texas, U.S. Senator and military hero lived with Oolooteck (John Jolly) here on the Hiwassee in 1809-1810. In the Hiwassee Treaty of 1817 and the Calhoun Agreement of 1819, the Cherokees ceded the land on the east bank of the Tennessee River north of the Hiwassee to Tennessee. The territory south of the Hiwassee remained in the Ocoee District of the Cherokee Nation and was not opened to white settlement until 1836. In 1819, the federal Cherokee Agency relocated from Meigs County to present-day Charleston.
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