Officials visit Trail of Tears sites in area counties
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Eight officials from various national and state agencies spent Tuesday, April 8, visiting various Trail of Tears sites in Pope, Johnson and Union counties.
The officials visited locations that have been certified as sites visited or trail segments that were part of the 1838-1839 Cherokee Trail of Tears when the Cherokee Nation was removed from North Carolina to Oklahoma.
The group of visitors who came to Southern Illinois included:
Aaron Mahr, superintendent, and Michael Taylor, both from the National Park Service National Trail Intermountain Region Office in Sante Fe, N.M.
K. Lynne Berry, director, Eastern Heritage Area Program, National Park Service Atlanta, Ga., office.
Amy Hathaway, survey and national register specialist from the Illinois State Historic Preservation/National Register of Historic Places Office, Springfield.
Dr. Carroll Van West, director, and Amy Kostine, Trail of Tears Project coordinator/historian, both from the Middle Tennessee State University Center for Historic Preservation, Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Dr. Mark Wagner, director, and Eraina Nossa, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
The group was hosted by the Illinois Chapter Trail of Tears Association.
Representatives of the Illinois chapter who welcomed the visitors included:
Board president Sandra Boaz, Anna; board secretary Gary Hacker, Lake of Egypt; and board members Cindy Abbot, Golconda, and Joe Crabb, Grantsburg.