Trail of Tears National Historic Trail

In 1838 and 1839 the United States forcibly removed the Cherokee Nation from its homelands in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. Detachments travelled by water and overland, and many did not survive the journey. Congress designated the routes a National Historic Trail in 1987. This map follows those alignments at eye level. The water route ran down the Tennessee River to the Ohio at Paducah, down the Ohio to the Mississippi at Cairo, and then downriver past New Madrid, Memphis and Helena to the mouth of the Arkansas at Napoleon — where the detachments turned west. Terrain360 recorded that lower reach from the water in September 2026, together with the landings and riverfronts along it. The overland routes are here as well: the Northern Route where it crossed the Ohio at Berry's Ferry and the Mississippi near Cape Girardeau, and the Bell Route where it climbs Crowley's Ridge in eastern Arkansas. Route alignments follow the National Park Service designated-route data for the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.