Blythe Ferry was a ferry across the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other name ...

in Meigs County,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, United States. In 1838, the ferry served as a gathering point and crossing for the Cherokee Removal, commonly called the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was an ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. As part of the Indian removal, members of the Cherokee, ...

, in which thousands of

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

were forced to move west to Oklahoma from their homeland in the southeastern United States. While the ferry no longer exists, the ferry site is now part of the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park, which was dedicated in 2005 and was still under development in 2007. The park comprises a section of the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, which is managed by the

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) is an independent state agency of the state of Tennessee with the mission of managing the state's fish and wildlife and their habitats, as well as responsibility for all wildlife-related law enforcem ...

Geographical setting

The Blythe Ferry site is situated along the eastern bank of the

Chickamauga Lake Chickamauga Lake is a reservoir in the United States along the Tennessee River created when the Chickamauga Dam, as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority, was completed in 1940. The lake stretches from Watts Bar Dam at mile 529.9 (853 km) ...

impoundment of the Tennessee River, just south of the mouth of the

Hiwassee River The Hiwassee River has its headwaters on the north slope of Rocky Mountain in Towns County in the northern area of the State of Georgia. It flows northward into North Carolina before turning westward into Tennessee, flowing into the Tennessee Riv ...

. The site is located near a point where Meigs County, Rhea County, and Hamilton County meet. Tennessee State Route 60, which formerly crossed the river at the ferry, connects the area to

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

to the east,

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

to the west, and Decatur to the north. The unincorporated community of Birchwood is located just to the southeast.

History

Blythe Ferry was established by William Blythe and his Cherokee wife, Nancy Fields, around 1809. The ferry was an important river crossing on the "Great Road" between Chattanooga and

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

. Blythe sold the ferry in 1825, and the Blythe family would make the trek west with the Cherokee in the 1830s.William Blythe Had Early Ferry
" TNGenWeb.org, 7 February 2006. Retrieved: 23 January 2008. In 1836, the

Treaty of New Echota The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on December 29, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia, by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction, the Treaty Party. The treaty established ter ...

was ratified, transferring all Cherokee lands east of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

to the United States. The treaty called for a general relocation of the Cherokee Nation to the

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

(modern Oklahoma). In 1838, President

Martin Van Buren Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party, he ...

ordered General

Winfield Scott Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early s ...

to round up all Cherokees who had not voluntarily made the trek to Oklahoma and commence a forced removal. By the Fall of that year, some 9,000 Cherokee and 300 Creek had been imprisoned in stockades in Bradley County, a few miles to the east. It took several weeks to move the entire contingent across the river, with the last detachment crossing on November 12, 1838.Information obtained from Trail of Tears Corridor Committee marker at Blythe Ferry site, 29 December 2007. The route that Blythe Ferry was on was grandfathered onto State Route 60, and operated until 1994, when a bridge was built spanning the river immediately downstream. The ferry site was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1982.

References

{{Cherokee National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Tourist attractions in Meigs County, Tennessee Ferries of Tennessee Trail of Tears National Register of Historic Places in Meigs County, Tennessee Water transportation on the National Register of Historic Places Ferry terminals on the National Register of Historic Places 1809 establishments in Tennessee 1994 disestablishments in Tennessee