Rattlesnake Springs is a historic site in

Bradley County, Tennessee 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 na ...

listed 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 ...

(NRHP) in 1975.

History

Rattlesnake Springs is located northeast of

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. ...

and southeast of Charleston on a privately owned dairy farm in rural Bradley County. The site was a significant location for the eastern Cherokee Nation and during the

Cherokee Removal 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 Caroli ...

. 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 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, ...

. 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. These camps were two of several camps used for this purpose in the area, including

Fort Cass 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 the ...

in Charleston. More than 200 Cherokees reportedly died at the springs prior to removal due to unsanitary conditions. 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." The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 5, 1975. A historical marker once stood near the site.

References

{{commonscat, Rattlesnake Springs National Register of Historic Places in Bradley County, Tennessee Native American history of Tennessee Trail of Tears 19th century Cherokee history 1830s in Tennessee Internment camps in the United States Military history of Tennessee

History

See also

References