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A marker sits near the Tennessee River marking the site where Blythe's Ferry once operated. The ferry played a role in the forced removal of Cherokee people from their homelands in eastern Tennessee and Georgia. COURTESY PHOTO
By WILL CHAVEZ
Senior Reporter 

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – A memorial for Cherokee people who used Blythe Ferry on the Tennessee River to begin their journeys west during the forced removal may not be built if sufficient funding is not raised by March. The memorial is part of a project that includes a visitor center, which was built and opened in 2009. 

Blythe Ferry played a significant role during the forced removal of Cherokee people in 1838. It was the major exit point from the Cherokee Nation where many Cherokee people camped for up to six weeks waiting to cross the Tennessee River and journey west to Indian Territory. 

CN citizen Shirley Hoskins, who was born and raised in Spavinaw, has been working with the Meigs County Tourism Board in Tennessee to get the memorial built. She said the memorial’s construction was deferred until the visitor center was complete, and because of cost overruns and misunderstandings about how funds were to be used, plans for the memorial were put in limbo.  

She said when things were cleared up only $180,000 in grants was available for the memorial’s construction. An additional $45,000 in matching funds is needed to construct the memorial.

“Currently we have raised about 75 percent of this amount and will need an additional $12,500 by March if the project is to proceed and be completed by October,” she said. “I feel the memorial will never be built if we are unable to take advantage of the current opportunity.”

If the money isn’t raised by March, the available grant funds will be lost, Hoskins added.

The memorial fund recently received a $20,000 donation. Hoskins and her husband contributed $5,000 and additional contributions of $8,500 have been received for a total of $33,500. This will be adequate to start designing and preparing for construction bids. 

She added that a basic memorial can be built for $225,000, but some desirable features such as interpretive panels, decorations and landscaping would have to wait until later.

The 2,400-square-foot memorial will have seven-point star to represent the seven Cherokee clans and seven panels with the names of Cherokee people who crossed the Tennessee River using the Blythe Ferry.  

“Who these people were and what happened to them should not be forgotten. I want them remembered. That’s always been my goal. There are no tombstones or nothing left to show they were there,” Hoskins said. 

Today, the Blythe Ferry site sits along the eastern bank of the Chickamauga Lake enclosure of the Tennessee River, just south of the mouth of the Hiwassee River. The ferry was once an important river crossing on the “Great Road” between Chattanooga and Knoxville. William Blythe and his Cherokee wife Nancy Fields established the ferry around 1809, but sold it before the removal and moved west. 

In 1838, the ferry was used to transport nearly approximately 9,000 Cherokee people across the Tennessee River to begin their treks west. It took several weeks to move the entire contingent across the river, with the last detachment crossing on Nov. 12, 1838.

Those 9,000 Cherokees and 300 Creeks had been imprisoned in stockades in Bradley County, a few miles to the east of the ferry, prior to the removal. Descriptions of the stockades said that conditions were terrible and that people were left exposed to the elements for weeks prior to being taken to the ferry. 

The site is now part of the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park that was dedicated in 2005. Former Tennessee Congressman Zack Wamp secured a federal grant in 2008, which together with state and local funding provided $1.65 million for a memorial park that included a History Wall to tell the Cherokee story, a visitor center and the memorial. It was decided in 2008 to defer building the memorial until supporting facilities were complete. 

Tax-deductible contributions can be made directly to Mayor Garland Lankford, Meigs County/Cherokee Removal Memorial, P. O Box 156, Decatur, TN 37322. People can call his office at 423-334-5850. Contributors will receive a letter from the mayor thanking them for their support and a certificate recognizing their contribution. The names of those that contribute $1,000 or more will be placed on a prominently displayed plaque.

will-chavez@cherokee.org
918-207-3961