Trail Of Tears

Eventually, we ended up on the Illinois border in the intriguingly named Trail of Tears State Park where we set up camp deep in a thick forest under the cover of an eerie and frightening darkness. Here, we could hear the faint rumbling of the mighty Mississippi River flowing aggressively in the distance. It felt satisfying to think about how far we had come, and exciting to think about how far we still had yet to go.

Then after what seemed like many hours, we fell asleep despite the concerted efforts of an officious park ranger and the movement of a plethora of unidentified tree dwelling animals.

The next morning we woke up to something truly beautiful. As we were now deep in the forest, the sun had taken longer then usual to wake us up. This meant that by the time we did emerge from the Beast it was already high in the sky, beaming down and illuminating the myriad of colourful leaves that dangled precariously from each and every tree.

Trail of Tears

Mighty Mississippi

Inspired, we quickly dressed and set out to hike a trail through a carpet of fallen leaves and under a threadbare covering of foliage.

In case you are wondering, the ‘Trail of Tears’ is the term given to the path taken by Native Americans (Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, and Choctaw) after their forced relocation to the small Indian territory that was ‘set aside’ for them in modern day Oklahoma. This long passage cost countless lives especially at this exact point on the Mississippi where between 4000 and 15000 Cherokee Indians died from exposure within the dead of winter. Surprisingly, to me at least, it was George Washington’s who instigated this policy. His proposal of cultural transformation for American natives inspired subsequent presidents like Andrew Jackson to pass and implement the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Think about it for a second. Not just one, but multiple cultures annexed or almost entirely obliterated by the ambition of an immigrant population. If this happened anywhere in the modern world, we would use two words to describe it; invasion and genocide.

Now, this wonderful state park preserves the native woodlands much as they appeared to the Cherokee back in the 1830’s.

This really was a beautiful, if poignant place to spend a couple days prior to the continuation of our journey east into Illinois and Indiana.

© All Images By Paul