A Bike Ride Through Fayetteville's Trail of Tears History

Fayetteville, Arkansas, lies along the Trail of Tears, the routes of the Cherokee people's forced removal. A bicycle day in town can take in its sites — bring a bike or rent one from the city's bike-share, and bring a map, on paper or phone.

The recommended bicycle route to Trail of Tears sites in Fayetteville. Image from the National Park Service's page on the route

The route

1. Trail of Tears Park and Memorial — 1100 M.L.K. Jr. Blvd.
A small corner park beside the high school, on university land, and surprisingly peaceful for a busy spot. Exhibits tell of the 1,200 Cherokee who camped here in January 1839, drawn by the stream that runs across the street alongside the road and trail.

2. Tsa-la-gi Trail, part of the Razorback Greenway
Cross Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd at the stoplight; the trail is just past the creek. Tsa-la-gi is the Cherokee word for "Cherokee," and the trail roughly follows one of the Trail of Tears routes.

3. Sarah Ridge House — 230 W. Center St.
The oldest house still standing in Fayetteville: its log walls are enclosed inside the plaster walls of the lower floor. Sarah Ridge moved here after fleeing Indian Territory (Oklahoma) following the murder of her husband and two others — a reminder of the political divisions of Indian Removal, which began in the Cherokee homeland and continued in Indian Territory. The house is not open, but there is an exhibit outside. More on the house.

4. Site of the Fayetteville Female Seminary — 301 W. Mountain St.
Sophia Sawyer founded the seminary in 1839, when she came to Fayetteville with Sarah Ridge and her seven children. Sawyer's ties to the Ridge family and to educating Cherokee people went back to Georgia.

5. The Square Gardens — downtown
The Fayetteville Square, bounded by Center, East, Block and Mountain streets, has been the town's commercial hub since its founding; its first lots were surveyed in 1835. The Experience Fayetteville Visitors Center is here too.

Learn more

Explore history on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. Image from the National Park Service's page on the route

More national historic trails. Image from the National Park Service's page on the route

Sources

Based on "Trail of Tears: Fayetteville Itinerary," National Park Service, Trail of Tears National Historic Trail; a work of the United States government in the public domain.