The Cherokee’s Forced March West Turned Deadliest at This Missouri River Crossing, 1830s

The Trail of Tears State Park

Winter 1838 turned the Mississippi River into a graveyard.

Cherokee families, forced from their homes, waited for weeks to cross into Missouri. Many never made it. The cold, hunger, and disease claimed hundreds at this exact spot.

Here’s what happened at the crossing that became Trail of Tears State Park.

Jackson’s Indian Removal Act

Gold discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia in 1829 made white settlers hungry for tribal territories.

President Andrew Jackson pushed through the Indian Removal Act in 1830 to force American Indians east of the Mississippi to move west.

The Supreme Court ruled in Worcester v. Georgia that Cherokee Nation held sovereignty, but Jackson ignored this decision.

A small unauthorized group of Cherokee signed the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, giving away all eastern Cherokee land for $5 million and territory in Oklahoma.

Chief John Ross gathered 16,000 signatures against this illegal treaty but failed to stop the removal.

Troops Round Up the Cherokee

In May 1838, General Winfield Scott arrived with 7,000 soldiers. Military forces stormed Cherokee homes, capturing families at gunpoint and forcing them into crude stockades where disease spread quickly.

Over 16,000 Cherokee waited in these prison camps before beginning their 800-mile forced march. While some left voluntarily in 1837, most remained until soldiers drove them out at bayonet point.

Cherokee named this journey “nunahi-duna-dlo-hilu-i” – “the trail where they cried” – as they endured summer heat and deadly winter storms.

Journey Through Four States

The Northern Route took Cherokee through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri – 2,200 miles across nine states. Eight large groups left Fort Cass, Tennessee between August and September 1838.

Most walked while wagons carried only supplies and those too weak to continue. As winter arrived, travelers lacked proper clothing, food, and medicine.

Snow and freezing temperatures slowed progress to just a few miles per day. The journey from Tennessee River to Mississippi crossing took months of difficult travel.

Detachments Reach the Mississippi

By December 1838, exhausted Cherokee reached the Mississippi River at Moccasin Springs. Leaders like Jesse Bushyhead, Lewis Hildebrand, and Peter Hildebrand guided their people to Green’s Ferry, also called Willard’s Landing.

The wide, swift Mississippi posed a dangerous obstacle. Ferryboats needed to transport thousands of people, wagons, and livestock across dangerous waters.

Cherokee families built temporary shelters along both riverbanks using whatever materials they found while waiting to cross.

Ice Halts the Crossing

Thick ice chunks clogged the Mississippi during winter 1838-1839, making ferry crossings impossible. Cherokee faced brutal conditions while waiting for the river to clear.

Commissary agent Martin Davis reported ice “8 or 12 inches thick.” People chopped through frozen water just to find drinking supplies.

Some groups waited more than a month before crossing became possible. During this delay, food and firewood supplies ran dangerously low, creating the deadliest period of the entire Trail of Tears.

Hundreds Die From Winter Exposure

Temperatures dropped far below freezing for weeks while Cherokee waited at the Mississippi. Hundreds died from exposure as pneumonia, influenza, and other diseases spread through the camps.

Survivors buried their dead in hastily dug graves along the riverbanks, often in ground too frozen for proper burial. Children and elderly suffered most severely.

The forced removal killed approximately 4,000 Cherokee—nearly one-fifth of the nation’s population—with many deaths occurring during river crossings and winter camps.

Nancy Bushyhead Hilderbrand Dies

Nancy Bushyhead Walker Hilderbrand died near the Mississippi River in January 1839. She traveled with her husband Lewis, who led one of the detachments.

Born around 1811 in the Cherokee Nation East, Nancy owned a farm in Tennessee valued at $760 in an 1835 census. Her first husband John Walker Jr. was killed in 1834 for supporting negotiation with the government.

Nancy remarried Lewis Hilderbrand around 1836. Lewis had delivered a petition against the removal treaty signed by nearly 16,000 Cherokee, but ultimately led a detachment west when removal became unavoidable.

Memorial Honors the Deceased

In 1961, the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club erected a monument near Nancy’s grave. The original marker incorrectly called her “Princess Otahki” and misidentified her family relationships.

Research revealed these mistakes. The Cherokee Nation has no royal titles like “princess” in their democratic government.

Officials renamed it the “Bushyhead Memorial” in 2001. A wooden cross initially marked Nancy’s grave but burned in a forest fire. Locals later created a new memorial with rocks and an iron cross, and in 2015, an accurate interpretive panel was installed.

Missouri Trails West

After crossing the Mississippi, Cherokee groups followed several routes through Missouri toward Indian Territory.

The Hilderbrand Detachment turned south near Fredericktown on January 22, 1839. Illness forced them to camp for a month along the Gasconade River, where 55 more people died.

This group finally reached Indian Territory on March 25, 1839, five months after starting their journey.

A Confederate soldier who witnessed the removal later said that despite seeing war carnage, “the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew.”

National Historic Recognition

Congress designated the Trail of Tears a National Historic Trail in 1987, covering 2,200 miles across nine states from Georgia to Oklahoma.

Trail of Tears State Park became an official site on this historic trail. The park’s visitor center presents detailed exhibits about the forced relocation.

The Trail of Tears Association works with government agencies to install interpretive panels along the route. The park preserves native woodlands similar to those the Cherokee saw during their journey.

Visiting Trail of Tears State Park

Trail of Tears State Park is located at 429 Moccasin Springs Road, Jackson, Missouri 63755. The park is open year-round from 7:00 AM until sunset. The visitor center operates from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM daily, with extended summer hours.

Park admission is free. Camping sites cost $13-$23 per night and can be reserved online at mostateparks.com. The park offers basic and electric campsites, modern restrooms, and showers.

Fishing licenses are required for the Mississippi River and Lake Boutin.

Read More from WhenInYourState.com:

• 7 Essential Stops on Missouri’s Civil Rights Trail
• Missouri’s Ancient Pink “Elephants” Became America’s First Braille Trail for the Blind in 1973
• 7 Stops You Need to Make on a Missouri Road Trip