Illinois

Illinois Annotated Bibliography
Camp Ground Church & Cemetery
Union County Archival & Historical Investigation

 

Illinois Annotated Bibliography
In 2003, the NPS entered into a cooperative Cost Share Program agreement with the Department of Forestry at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. As part of a larger project, Professor John Burde (now retired) and Research Assistant Karen Frailey produced a substantial bibliography about the Trail of Tears in Illinois. Specific topics covered include volumes about the three counties through which the trail traversed (Union, Johnson, and Pope), Roads of Southern Illinois, and Regional Works.

Annotated Bibliography, Trail of Tears National Historic Trail in Illinois, 2008 (3 MB pdf)

 

Camp Ground Cemetery and Church
The main (northern) land route of the Trail of Tears crosses southern Illinois in an east-west direction between Golconda, Illinois (on the Ohio River) and the vicinity of Cape Girardeau, Missouri (on the Mississippi River). This stretch of trail, near the midpoint of the journey between eastern Tennessee and Indian Territory, witnessed much suffering among the Cherokee. Various folk tales, reports, and diaries tell of deaths in this area. An important Cherokee campsite in Illinois — and a possible series of Cherokee graves — was in the vicinity of today’s Camp Ground Church, near Anna. To gain more knowledge about the reputed burials, the NPS partnered with the Department of Geology at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale (2006). Dr. Harvey Henson, Jr. worked with a team of students who experimented with a variety of remote sensing techniques to ascertain the number and location of unidentified (and possible Cherokee) graves in and adjacent to the Camp Ground Church Cemetery. Report: Geophysical Investigation at Camp Ground Cemetery and Church near Anna, Illinois, April 2010.

To learn more about this project, contact the the NPS NATIONAL TRAILS INTERMOUNTAIN REGION at e-mail us

 

The Noggin Smart Cart ground-penetrating radar (GPR) system configured with 500 MHz antennae, a GPS antenna, and a total station prism. Camp Ground Cemetery is in the western background.

 

Union County Archival-Historical Investigations
Principal investigator Mark Wagner prepared this report, an NPS Challenge Cost Share Project, between October 2002 and September 2003. The report focuses on Union County, which is the westernmost of the three Illinois counties that were located along the northern (main) Trail of Tears route — traversed by thousands of Cherokee between 1837 and 1839. Wagner's research had three objectives: (1) to examine land, tax, and other records to determine if any of nine known archeological sites could have been occupied ruing the Trail of Tears period, (2) to determine the locations, owners, operators, and types of ferries that the various Cherokee detachments may have used, and (3) to review various contemporary journals to see if any Union County landowners may have been identified.

Mark J. Wagner, Archival and Historical Investigation for the Cherokee Trail of Tears in Union County, Illinois, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Technical Report 03-2, October 2003 (13.3 MB pdf)

 

Location of Trail of Tears route and ferry sites in western Union County.