Cherokee Trail or The Trail of Tears

Since first contact with European explorers in the 1500's the Cherokee Nation has been recognized as one of the most progressive among American Indian Tribes. Cherokee culture had developed and thrived for almost 1000 years in the southeastern and lower Appalachian states of Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, parts of Kentucky, and Alabama.

White influence came slowly in the Cherokee country, but the changes were swift and dramatic.

In the early 1800's the Cherokee Nation migrated west and settled in other areas of the country' vast frontier. Weary of encroachment of the white people it seemed like the best thing to do. White resentment of the Cherokee Nation had been building, and then gold was discovered in Georgia.

Besieged with gold fever the whites turned against the Indian neighbors and the U.S. Government decided it was time for the Cherokee people to leave their farms, their land and their homes. Georgia and the U.S Government prevailed as it forced all of the 17,000 Cherokee people from the southeastern homelands.
They had to start all over again in the west.

• The Dominguez-Escalante Expeditions Journal:

Through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in 1776

• I Walked to Zion:
- Young Pioneers on the Mormon Trail

• The Gathering of Zion:
- The Story of the Mormon Trail

• National Geographic's Guide to:
- Lewis and Clark Trail

• Hiking Historic Trails
- Utah's Favorite Hiking Trails

• Scenic Driving - Travel guides
- Scenic Driving in Utah

• Historical reading
- The Old Spanish Trail

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