Keelboats on the Trail of Tears: How Cherokee Detachments Traveled by River, 1837–1839

A 55-foot full-size replica of the Lewis and Clark keelboat. Its small rear cabin is typical of early keelboats; those on the Trail of Tears were likely bigger. Library of Congress.

Between 1837 and 1839, during the forced removal of the Cherokee to Indian Territory, four detachments traveled part of the way on eight keelboats.

What a keelboat was

• Shape: long and narrow, pointed at bow and stern, with a keel for stability — hence the name.
• Size: typically 40 to 80 feet long and 8 to 12 feet wide. Fully loaded, one drew only about 2 feet of water, ideal for shallow rivers.
• Cabins: early boats had a rear cabin; later ones a much larger center cabin or cargo box.
• Power: sails, oars (four to twelve rowers at the bow), poles — crews walked a 12- to 18-inch cleated footway along the gunwales — or hand-winching upstream.

On the Trail of Tears the keelboats were towed by steamboats, so the rowers' space could hold passengers.

A keelboat on the Mississippi in 1838, with the large center cabin common by then. Library of Congress.

What the travelers saw

No images of the removal keelboats are known, and eyewitnesses disagreed about them.

• Dr. John S. Young, who led a detachment, hired the steamboat Newark to tow two keelboats of 60 tons and 80 feet each, at $13 a head, from Tuscumbia to Little Rock. He called them spacious, covered, painted, dry, clean and well ventilated through side doors, so people could sleep out of the night air and weather. Three hearths on top of each keel, and one on the steamboat's deck, let people cook and eat without stopping.
• Dr. Clark Lillybridge, the physician traveling with Young's detachment, wrote on March 13, 1837, that the boats had far too little room, no stoves or fires, and water in the hold — to people used to the comforts of settled life, "rather a revolting spectacle."
• Lt. Edward Deas of the U.S. Army called the keelboat for his April 1838 detachment "commodious," a large keel with double cabins; for his June 1838 detachment, simply "double deck keels."

Mostly on foot

The removal came as a transportation revolution was beginning — steamboats, railroads, better roads and turnpikes. The Cherokee used some of these, but most walked, over rough roads.

Sources

Based on "Keelboats: Transportation During the Cherokee Removal 1837 - 1839," Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, National Park Service, made possible by a cooperative agreement between National Trails and the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The source cuts off the year of Dr. Young's letter of June 25.