Last updated: October 29, 2023
Contact Us
Article
Cadron Settlement Park Exhibits Audio Description
NPS Exhibit
Cadron Settlement Park - They Passed This Way Exhibit Audio Description
-
Cadron Settlement Park - They Passed This Way Exhibit Audio Description
Interested in the Trail of Tears at Cadron Settlement Park? Take a look at these interpretive exhibits and listen to their audio descriptions.
- Date created:
- 10/27/2023
Welcome to Cadron Settlement Park.Exhibit 1 - They Passed This Way
You are standing at a Trail of Tears National Historic Trail exhibit that is inches tall and 36 inches wide. In front of you is the Arkansas River. Behind the exhibit is a green lawn with a historic blockhouse structure. There are pathways in front of you down to the river and behind you to the picnic structure and parking area.
The exhibit has a black band across the top. Within it, there is text that reads, "Cadron Settlement Park, Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, National Park Service, US Army Corps of Engineers." There is a triangular logo for the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.
Beneath the black band is the exhibit title "They Passed This Way."
The large image at the top is a painting depicting a steamboat traveling slightly right of straight on a river so that you can see the length of the white boat, with smoke billowing out of a smokestack on top towards the front and the paddlewheel at the rear. It is towing a keelboat directly behind it. Facing the viewer in the forefront of the painting on top of the keelboat is a Cherokee Indian man in traditional clothing, standing upright, staring at the viewer. The keelboat depicts people in coversation, one with hands on his face, a woman holding a child, and others.
The primary text reads,
"Thousands of Cherokee men, women, and children passed here on the water route of the Trail of Tears. Implementation of the 1830 Indian Removal Act forced Cherokee off their land and out of their homes in the southeastern US and onto a path to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).
While faster than the land route, those who journeyed by water faced challenges and dangers, including the quick spread of sickness onboard, exposure to disease along the river lowlands, fires aboard steamers, unpredictable weather, and changing water levels that affected river navigation."
Next to the primary text is a map of Arkansas showing the route of the Arkansas River coursing from the southeast part of the state at the junction with the Mississippi River to the northwest where it crosses the Oklahoma border. The caption reads, "The Arkansas River was one of the routes of the Trail of Tears."
The right third of the exhibit has a subtitled area that reads, "Five Tribes Passed This Way on Land and Water" and the content begins with the following quote. "Between 700 and 800 Cherokee arrived here...the river being too low to proceed farther by water...they are resuming their journey by land. The summer (or bowel) complaint... is prevailing among them...particularly among the children, and a good many deaths have occurred.” from the Arkansas Gazette, August 1, 1838.
The text beneath the quote reads, "You are looking toward the Arkansas River, where thousands of Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole passed during their forced removal from the southeastern United States to Indian Territory.
Far from being the wide, smooth river you see today, the Arkansas in the 1830s was treacherous, causing delays and increasing misery. For this reason, thousands of Indian people traveled by land over the 1828 Military Road to Indian Territory. Remnants of this abandoned road still exist northeast of here."
Another map shows the states of the Southeastern US with arrows indicating the routes west to Indian Territory for the Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Seminoles. The caption below it reads, "The United States government forcibly removed more than 15,000 Cherokee, 21,000 Muscogee (Creek), 9,000 Choctaw, 6,000 Chickasaw, and 4,000 Seminole."
Across the bottom are two bands. The first one in black includes the title "Journey Along the Arkansas River - Visit These Sites to Learn More about the Trail of Tears" followed by the URL nps.gov/trte/planyourvisit.
The bottom band includes a horizontal line with places along the Arkansas River and their distance from the mouth of the Arkansas River at the Mississippi River to the Oklahoma border. It is titled "Distance in Miles Across the Arkansas River Portion of the Trail of Tears Water Route."
Mouth of the Arkansas River 0 Arkansas Post National Memorial 14 Pendleton Bend Park 16 Rising Star Park 48 Tar Camp Park 84 Willow Beach Park 102 North Shore Riverwalk Park 112 Toad Suck Ferry Park 152 Cadron Settlement Park 154 Lake Dardanelle State Park 204 Oklahoma Border 303
NPS Exhibit
Cadron Settlement Park - Tragedy of Early Removal Exhibit Audio Description
-
Cadron Settlement Park - Tragedy of Early Removal Exhibit Audio Description
Interested in the Trail of Tears at Cadron Settlement Park? Take a look at these interpretive exhibits and listen to their audio descriptions.
- Date created:
- 10/27/2023
Welcome to Cadron Settlement Park.Exhibit 2 - Tragedy of Early Removal
You are standing at a Trail of Tears National Historic Trail exhibit that is 24 inches tall and 36 inches wide. In front of you is the Arkansas River. Behind the exhibit is a green lawn with a historic blockhouse structure. There are pathways in front of you down to the river and behind you to the picnic structure and parking area.
The exhibit has a black band across the top. Within it, there is text that reads, "Cadron Settlement Park, Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, National Park Service, US Army Corps of Engineers." There is a triangular logo for the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.
Beneath the black band is the exhibit title "Tragedy of Early Removal."
One large brown pen and ink illustration shows a huddled group of Cherokee from behind, walking towards the riverfront where a small rope ferry will carry them across a small waterway to an island on the main channel of a wide river. Artwork by Sam Watts-Scott.
Above and to the right of the illustration is a quote that reads, "Notes of lamentation & woe arose upon the morning air, and the shrieks of the dying. . . . There were three cases of death before breakfast and eleven in all before the sun went down. . . . All are panic struck; and are scatter through the woods building their campfires as remote from each other as their several fears direct them." from the Journal of Lt. Joseph Harris"
The primary text reads, "Some Cherokee traveled west before the 1838-1839 Trail of Tears. In 1834, more than 700 Cherokee found themselves stranded here because of low water while suffering from a cholera epidemic that killed dozens of people, many of them children."
A subtitle reads, "No Choice but to Continue by Land." This text follows, "The Cherokee camped here for 16 days while trying to decide how to proceed. After burying their dead, with their detachment leader Lt. Joseph Harris also sick with cholera, they continued their journey by land.
"Harris reported that 81 died on the journey. Of those that arrived, half died within the next year from the strain of the journey and disease. Harris died as a lingering effect of his cholera in 1837."
A second subtitle reads, "Rediscovered and Remembered." This text follows, In 1991, Faulkner County Historical Society identified 44 American Indian graves. They located 36 more that could not be identified as Indian. Undoubtedly, more unmarked graves exist.
As you explore the park, remember the Cherokee who passed this way."
Learn More
