On Springfield’s southwest side, at Marcella Street and Golden Avenue, just behind the Walmart Neighborhood Market, is a small trail that, at first glance, looks like a gravel path.

But the corridor is carved in history.

From 1837 to 1839, Cherokee Indians trudged through Springfield on the Trail of Tears.

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson created the “Native American Removal Act” which paved the way for Congress to uproot 60,000 Native Americans in the southeast and relocate them in Oklahoma. The vast majority made the grueling journey on foot; they crossed swamplands and faced harsh winters. Thousands of men, women and children died along the way.

The forced march became known as the Trail of Tears, now a national historic designation.
The Trail of Tears traces 2,200 miles of land and water routes, covers nine states, and traverses the Queen City.
According to a marker on the trail, by the time they reached the Springfield, the Cherokee had walked 647 miles and had 133 miles left to go.

Jackie Warfel, chair of the Greene County Historic Sights Board, has ambled across this path many times, giving tours to Native Americans and others interested in the history.

“I have never walked this path with Native people where they didn’t shed tears,” said Warfel.

Today the land is owned by Ozark Greenways, a nonprofit working to preserve the Ozarks’ natural heritage for public use by developing a greenway trail network.

The nonprofit gained the property by happenstance. In 2000, a developer didn’t want to deal with removing the trees on a plot of land so he offered it to Ozark Greenways, said Terry Whaley, executive director of Ozark Greenways. At that point, none of the parties involved realized it was part of the Trail of Tears.

“We thought someday it might make a nice trail if we put the pieces together,” Whaley said, noting that is lays over an old railroad bed.

Then one day Warfel strolled into Whaley’s office and explained that the land was part of the Trail of Tears and she wanted permission to put up a Greene County historical site marker.

“I said ‘Sure, knock yourself out.’ From there it evolved into a project. The more I visited with Jackie, the more I thought we might have something special here,” Whaley said.

The 1,200-foot trail section at Marcella and Golden has received National Historic Trail designation from the National Park Service.

In 2014, Ozark Greenways was granted permission from the superintendent of National Park Service Intermountain Region, for local artist Christine Schilling to place a mosaic of the National Historic Trail of Tears logo in a section of sidewalk which would connect a segment of the original trail from Walnut Lawn west of Scenic Avenue to the James River Freeway (the trail connection is on Golden, where Golden goes under the freeway).

The sidewalk opens up to a trail lined with mulch that meanders up a small incline under a canopy of trees and snakes down into wild foliage (beware of poison ivy at that spot). The portion of the trail from the mosaic to the hill was an Eagle Scout project – they put down the wood chips and planted trees and shrubs.

While the Trail of Tears greenway is short, it’s been embraced. People use it and it attracts history buffs, said Whaley. The grass is mowed by nearby residents.

“It is the pride of the neighborhood. They just take care of it,” Warfel said.

Cherokee descendants have visited it, too.

Since the trail at Marcella opened, three individuals and one team have made the entire journey of the Trail of Tears on foot, bike, horseback and even in a wagon pulled by mules.

“Ron Cooper in 2012 and his resulting book, ‘It’s My Trail, Too’ was the first, and was accompanied by his wife, Krystal, who drove their motor home and hauled Ron back and forth each day. I walked across Greene County with Ron and was at Tahlequah to see him finish at the Heritage Center,” said Warfel, who is deeply passionate about the history.

The Cherokee Youth Riders make the trip each June. Warfel followed them on two separate occasions from Springfield to Pea Ridge National Military Park in Arkansas.

There are gaps in the trail, but the goal is to knit this historical footpath together to make a more continuous route.

Three additional phases are slowly coming together with the vision of connecting the Trail of Tears to Springfield’s South Creek Greenway to the north and to the city of Battlefield’s Trail of Tears City Park to the south.

Whaley has worked to secure easements to open additional segments but additional hurdles exist, such as interrupting some questionable land ownership, purchase of a rail road property, installation of a road underpass, installation of two trail bridges, drainage issues, public access, development of the actual trail surface, and funding the project.

“It is a project and we are chipping away at it. We don’t have a budget for this thing, so we do it on a shoestring. If people like it and want to maintain it, money always helps. They can make a donation to Ozark Greenways and designate it for Trail of Tears so they can be sure it will be spent on the project,” he said.

Want to know more?

To learn more about the Trail of Tears: nps.gov/trte/index.htm
To learn more about Ozark Greenways or make a tax-deductible donation: ozarkgreenways.org/
View the Trail of Tears map through Springfield.