Rattlesnake Springs | |
Nearest city | Cleveland, Tennessee |
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Coordinates | 35°14′40″N84°52′16″W / 35.24444°N 84.87111°W |
NRHP reference No. | 75001734 [1] |
Added to NRHP | September 5, 1975 |
Rattlesnake Springs is a historic site in Bradley County, Tennessee listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1975.
Rattlesnake Springs is located northeast of Cleveland and southeast of Charleston on a privately owned dairy farm in rural Bradley County. [2]
The site was a significant location for the eastern Cherokee Nation and during the Cherokee Removal. The final Council of the eastern Cherokees was held at Rattlesnake Springs, and in 1838 federal troops held and assembled 13,000 Cherokees on the site to begin the migration to Oklahoma known as the Trail of Tears. Federal troops along with militias from Tennessee and Georgia established two military camps near the site, Camp Foster and Camp Worth, which were used to oversee the Cherokees prior to removal. [3] These camps were two of several camps used for this purpose in the area, including Fort Cass in Charleston. [4] More than 200 Cherokees reportedly died at the springs prior to removal due to unsanitary conditions. [3]
The historical significance of Rattlesnake Springs was chronicled by local historian and Cleveland mayor James F. Corn in his 1959 book "Red Clay and Rattlesnake Springs: A History of the Cherokee Indians of Bradley County, Tennessee." [3] The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 5, 1975. [1] A historical marker once stood near the site. [2]
Bradley County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 108,620, making it the thirteenth most populous county in Tennessee. Its county seat is Cleveland. It is named for Colonel Edward Bradley of Shelby County, Tennessee, who was colonel of Hale's Regiment in the American Revolution and the 15th Regiment of the Tennessee Volunteers in the War of 1812. Bradley County is included in the Cleveland, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Chattanooga-Cleveland-Dalton, TN-GA-AL Combined Statistical Area.
Charleston is a city in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 664 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Cleveland is the county seat of and largest city in Bradley County, Tennessee. The population was 47,356 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Cleveland metropolitan area, Tennessee, which is included in the Chattanooga–Cleveland–Dalton, TN–GA–AL Combined Statistical Area.
Hopewell is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,087 at the 2020 Census. It is included in the Cleveland, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.
East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely Bledsoe, Cumberland, and Marion. East Tennessee is entirely located within the Appalachian Mountains, although the landforms range from densely forested 6,000-foot (1,800 m) mountains to broad river valleys. The region contains the major cities of Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee's third and fourth largest cities, respectively, and the Tri-Cities, the state's sixth largest population center.
New Echota was the capital of the Cherokee Nation in the Southeast United States from 1825 until their forced removal in the late 1830s. New Echota is located in present-day Gordon County, in northwest Georgia, 3.68 miles north of Calhoun. It is south of Resaca, next to present day New Town, known to the Cherokee as Ꭴꮝꮤꮎꮅ, Ustanali. The site has been preserved as a state park and a historic site. It was designated in 1973 as a National Historic Landmark District.
Chatata, meaning "clear water", is the original Cherokee name of an area located in Bradley County, Tennessee. Today the name survives in references to a number of locations in Bradley County, most notably Chatata Valley in the northeastern part of the county. Chatata was also the original name of an unincorporated community in this region now known as Tasso.
Fort Cass was a fort located on the Hiwassee River in present-day Charleston, Tennessee, that served as the military operational headquarters for the entire Cherokee removal, an forced migration of the Cherokee known as the Trail of Tears from their ancestral homelands in the Southeast to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Fort Cass housed a garrison of United States troops who watched over the largest concentration of internment camps where Cherokee were kept during the summer of 1838 before starting the main trek west to Indian Territory, and served as one of three emigration deports where the Cherokee began their journey west, the others of which were located at Ross's Landing in Chattanooga and Gunter's Landing near Guntersville, Alabama.
Red Clay State Historic Park is a state park located in southern Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The park was the site of the last capital of the Cherokee Nation in the eastern United States from 1832 to 1838 before the enforcement of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This resulted in a forced migration of most of the Cherokee people to present-day Oklahoma known as the Cherokee removal. The site is considered sacred to the Cherokees, and includes the Blue Hole Spring, a large hydrological spring. It is also listed as an interpretive center along the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.
The Oconaluftee is the valley of the Oconaluftee River in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Formerly the site of a Cherokee village and an Appalachian community, the valley is now North Carolina's main entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Blythe Ferry was a ferry across the Tennessee River in Meigs County, Tennessee, United States. In 1838, the ferry served as a gathering point and crossing for the Cherokee Removal, commonly called the Trail of Tears, in which thousands of Cherokee were forced to move west to Oklahoma from their homeland in the southeastern United States.
Whiteside is an unincorporated community in Marion County, Tennessee. It was originally settled as a Cherokee town in the late eighteenth century.
Ross's Landing in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is the last site of the Cherokee's 61-year occupation of Chattanooga and is considered to be the embarkation point of the Cherokee removal on the Trail of Tears. Ross's Landing Riverfront Park memorializes the location, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Cherokee removal, part of the Trail of Tears, refers to the forced relocation between 1836 and 1839 of an estimated 16,000 members of the Cherokee Nation and 1,000–2,000 of their slaves; from their lands in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama to the Indian Territory in the then Western United States, and the resultant deaths along the way and at the end of the movement of an estimated 4,000 Cherokee and unknown number of slaves, although no records of these deaths have ever materialized. Many scholars believe these Indians absconded from the removal rather than died.
The Hair Conrad Cabin is a historic log cabin in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States, and the oldest residential structure in the county.
Tasso is an unincorporated community located in Bradley County, Tennessee approximately five miles north-northeast of the business district of Cleveland. Its coordinates are approximately 35.212 N, 84.804 W and its elevation is approximately 814 feet. It appears in the East Cleveland US Geological Survey records. Tasso is included in the Cleveland metropolitan statistical area.
Candies Creek Ridge, also known as Clingan Ridge, is a geographic feature ridge located primarily in Bradley County, Tennessee, on the southeastern border of the state. It overlooks Candies Creek and is in north Cleveland, Tennessee.
The Henegar House is a historic house in Charleston, Tennessee. Constructed in 1849, it is the oldest remaining brick structure in Bradley County. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1976.
Cherokee Removal Memorial Park is a public park in Meigs County, Tennessee that is dedicated in memory of the Cherokee who were forced to emigrate from their ancestral lands during the Cherokee removal, in an event that came to be known as the Trail of Tears. It was established in 2005, and has since expanded.
The Hiwassee River Heritage Center is a history museum located in Charleston, Tennessee which was established in 2013. The museum chronicles the region's Cherokee and Civil War history. It is a certified interpretive center on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.