Trail of Tears - Okmulgee, OK
Posted by: 
hamquilter
N 35° 37.354 W 095° 58.331
15S E 230814 N 3946155
This marker memorializes a shameful part of U.S. history.
Waymark Code: WMBP8R
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 06/08/2011
Views: 13
On the south lawn of the Creek Nation Council House in downtown Okmulgee, built by the Muscogee (Creek) Tribe in 1878 to house their governmental headquarters, stands this marker to describe what has become known as "The Trail of Tears."
The marker reads: "During 1836-37, the U.S. soldiers herded up about 14,000 "hostiles", namely Upper Creek Indians in Alabama and Georgia, who had refused to move to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). They were placed in stockades until their forced removal to Indian Territory. Earlier, some 3,000 Lower Creeks of the McIntosh faction had moved "voluntarily" to the lands in the west. All were marched under harsh travel conditions, either by water or land routes, resulting in the deaths of about 4,000 Creeks. The routes took the Creeks over land and some on rivers. One such river route was only designed to carry 300. Tragedy struck the steamboat Monmouth which sank; taking with it some 311 lives.
"All routes of removal ended in the "disembarkment" station of Ft. Gibson, where the Creeks then moved into the current Muscogee (Creek) Nation boundaries. Old settlement patterns were to continue here in the I.T., where the Lower Creeks settled along the Verdigris/Arkansas Rivers and the Upper Creeks along the Canadian Rivers.
"This historical marker was made possible from the proceeds of the "Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Rides".
County: Okmulgee County
Record Address::
106 W. 6th Street
Okmulgee, OK US
74447
Web site if available: [Web Link]
Rate the Site: 
Sponsor (Who put it there): Alabama Tennessee Trail of Tears Corridor Association, Inc.
Date Erected: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:1 - Must visit the site in person.
2 - New Photo required.
3 - Give some new insight to the marker/site.