Mantle Rock and the Trail of Tears, 1838–39

Nearby runs a stretch of the old Salem–Golconda Road, and in the winter of 1838–39 that road carried the Cherokee Nation’s forced removal on the northern route of the Trail of Tears. Eleven detachments, more than 10,000 Cherokee in all, came this way toward Berry’s Ferry on the Ohio and the crossing to Golconda, Illinois, not yet halfway to Indian Territory.

Ice closed the river that winter. The Peter Hildebrand detachment, about 1,766 people, spent roughly two bitterly cold weeks in camps strung for miles along the road, waiting for the river to thaw enough for the ferry. A state historical marker says the Cherokee sheltered beneath the arch and that many died there; the National Park Service says there were far too many people to camp under it, that historical descriptions point to a long camp along the road, and that there is no evidence of burials at Mantle Rock.

Across the river, many were trapped again between the frozen Ohio and Mississippi, and the detachments reached Oklahoma hundreds fewer than they started. The Nature Conservancy owns the 367-acre preserve. It was listed on the National Register in 2004 as the Mantle Rock Archeological District and certified that year as a site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, and a 2.75-mile loop trail follows about a mile of the old road.

The map pin marks the Kentucky Historical Society’s Mantle Rock marker (#1675) on KY 133.