Trail Itineraries in Arkansas

By the time the Cherokee reach Arkansas, multiple stages of removal were overcome and each detachment had undergone different experiences due to geography, route, and wellness. While most visitors cannot fathom the hardships and loss, there are ways to understand the challenges faced day by day, place by place. Image how their thoughts, actions, and emotions must have changed dramatically from when they started their journey. For more context and primary documents, learn more about the Trail of Tears Through Arkansas - The Indian Removal Chronicle from the University of Arkansas. The three itineraries below connect places with stories and experiences.

Old Wire Road Itinerary

This itinerary focuses on the Cherokee as they get very close to arriving in Indian Territory. In Arkansas, the Cherokee saw farmsteads on the frontier, passing by small towns and through agricultural fields. They met Cherokee who resettled years or even decades earlier - those who saw the inevitable encroachment, racism, and desire for land in the US South. By the time the land detachments passed into Arkansas, some had been on the journey for six months. Little did they know that the border between Arkansas and Oklahoma was more of a web of routes and interactions rather than one final step into the new territory.

Those who traveled the Old Wire Road segment in northwest Arkansas came on the Northern Route [see map]. The removed tribal population, as tallied by Chief John Ross, indicates that 11,718 Cherokee left the homeland on the Northern Route but arrivals into Indian Territory totaled only 10,153 individuals. That is a 13% decrease in tribal population. Military numbers show a lower percentage – a 6% decrease in human life. Both account for great loss.

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