Read the latest project updates and completions from the National Trails Office (NTIR) of the National Park Service (NPS).
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National Trails Welcomes New Staff
NTIR welcomes Jordan Jarrett as the new Cultural Resources Specialist working out of the Santa Fe office. She has worked in archeology for both the National Park Service and the United States Forest Service (USFS) since receiving her Masters from Washington State University in 2013. She began her career working in Cultural Resources at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, completing various compliance and consultation projects (and doing so by boat, plane, and Jeeping on slickrock!). While there, she recorded her first historic trail segment, working with Rosemary Sucec and Lamont Crabtree to document the Slick Rocks segment of the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail near Hite, Utah. She spent two years with the NPS conducting preservation of Ancestral Pueblo structures in Flagstaff Area Monuments (the above photo is at Wupatki National Monument) and at Tonto National Monument.
In 2016, Jordan moved to New Mexico to work at Bandelier National Monument, where she served as an archeologist, monitoring and recording sites on the Pajarito Plateau. Jordan and her spouse live in Los Alamos, enjoying the many parks and resources our area has to offer! After a brief stint with USFS, Jordan says she has been "fortunate enough to have the opportunity to return to the National Park Service to further our mission of protecting and preserving our amazing resources. In my current role as external compliance reviewer, I look forward to learning about our trails, protecting our resources, and learning from my coworkers and our partners along the way!"
Staff Updates
NTIR is pleased to announce a few changes within the office. NTIR Lead Historian Angélica Sánchez-Clark has accepted a new position at NTIR as the Partnerships and Outreach Coordinator. NTIR cultural resources staff Jill Jensen, who had been in the acting role in the planning position, has become the permanent planner. Congratulations to these staff members on their new positions!
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RootsTech 2023 Conference
NTIR staff and retired NTIR staff member Lee Kreutzer attended the RootsTech 2023 conference in Salt Lake City March 2 - 4, and provided Trail of Tears NHT information (brochures, auto tour route guides, NPS App, junior ranger info). NTIR also displayed the interactive National Historic Trails Viewer mapping application to look at specific areas along the trails the public was interested in. People were very interested in the trails and how they related to their ancestors.
NTIR Staff Site Visits
In March, NTIR staff completed a tour of much of the north route of the Trail of Tears, visiting sites and partners along the way. Despite less-than-ideal weather, they visited Trail of Tears Memorial Park, Mantle Rock Nature Preserve, Trail of Tears State Park, Bollinger Mill State Historic Site, Hidden Waters Nature Park, Stark's Crossing, Boiling Springs Conservation Area, Montauk State Park, and the Roy Laughlin Park on Robidoux Creek. The trip ended in a multi-agency Tribal consultation conference in Quapaw, Okalohoma, where federal employees were able to hear about and discuss successes and failures in federal Tribal consultation efforts.
Port Royal State Park Site Plans
NTIR staff has developed two site plan alternatives for Port Royal State Park in Tennessee. Both alternatives include concepts for a larger parking lot that will have enough room to accommodate buses, a new trailhead with visitor orientation, and a new interpretive loop trail system. The team is currently working to put together a document to present these draft concepts to the park.
Connect Trails to Parks Project
In partnership with the USFS, NTIR submitted a Connect Trails to Parks (CTTP) project proposal in December 2022 for a Trail of Tears NHT planning project that would span 160+ miles across three national forests from the western North Carolina homelands of the Cherokee to the site of historic Fort Cass. If funded, this planning effort will provide a vision for regional scale NHT visitor experience, which would be the first of its kind on the Trail of Tears NHT.
Fort Smith National Historic Site (NHS)
NTIR staff worked in concert with Fort Smith NHS on tribal consultation to discuss all aspects of the replacement of interpretive waysides and a contemplative space at Fort Smith NHS where the Poteau and Arkansas rivers unite. The original assets were destroyed during the 2019 flood. The multi-day in-person and virtual consultation involved representatives from the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Muscogee nations.
Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area
NTIR and USFS, Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Kentucky, signed an interagency agreement for a project to bring awareness to the Trail of Tears Water Route within the recreation area.
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Specifically, the funds will be used to contract an interpretive firm to work with the USFS and NTIR to design, fabricate, and install interpretive and/or orientation panels, and site signing at six of the most highly visited locations at Land Between the Lakes; Hillman Ferry Campground, The Golden Pond Visitor Center, The Fenton Hike and Bike Path, The Egger Ferry Bridge Walkway, Turkey Bay Off-Highway Vehicle Area, and Piney Campground.
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USFS will install concrete pads at five of the sites, bollards at one site, and benches and trees at the sixth site to create appropriate spaces to display the waysides and for public contemplation. Highway route-crossing signs will be installed where the Trail of Tears crosses Highway 68/80 on Egger’s Ferry Bridge and a Trail of Tears ground logo will be painted on the bridge walkway at the point the walkway crosses the Trail. In addition, the Fenton Hike and Bike Path will have artwork stenciled onto the new concrete pad that honors the tribes of Trail of Tears.
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This project will build upon the success of a previously funded project that brought awareness to the water route in Arkansas and interpretive media will be designed in the same style creating continuity between both water route locations.
New Site Video
NTIR has created a short video for the Mantle Rock site. This video is part of an effort to inform visitors about the opportunities and sites along the Trail of Tears NHT.
NTIR is working on making a series of these short videos (~1 ½ mins) for trail sites, to load onto our Places Asset pages and to the NPS National Trails YouTube channel. The videos are meant to "advertise" trail sites to visitors, briefly telling them what there is to see and do, and try to entice them to visit.
Take a look below, or if you are reading a printed version, check out:
Mantle Rock: go.nps.gov/mantlerock
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Mantle Rock Nature Preserve - Place to visit on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail
Mantle Rock Nature Preserve is a 367-acre natural area that invites visitors to explore rare and unique natural features of Kentucky and offers the meaningful experience of retracing a portion of the Trail of Tears northern route. A two- and three-quarter-mile loop trail follows a one-mile portion of the same historic road traveled Cherokee people during the forced Indian removal of 1838 and 1839. For more information: Go.nps.gov/mantlerock.
Duration:
1 minute, 28 seconds
Mantle Rock Nature Preserve - Place to visit on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail
Mantle Rock Nature Preserve is a 367-acre natural area that invites visitors to explore rare and unique natural features of Kentucky and offers the meaningful experience of retracing a portion of the Trail of Tears northern route. A two- and three-quarter-mile loop trail follows a one-mile portion of the same historic road traveled Cherokee people during the forced Indian removal of 1838 and 1839. For more information: Go.nps.gov/mantlerock.
Duration:
1 minute, 28 seconds
Site Information Needed
We need help from the site experts! NTIR staff is working on creating Places webpages for sites across the Trail of Tears NHT. Creating this page has a number of benefits: your site and information will be featured in the NPS mobile app and across the NPS.gov websites, bringing your site to a wider audience. And it's very easy! Interested? NTIR staff is requesting that you fill out a Places Feature form. That's all it takes! This form prompts you for basic information about your site and the significance to the national historic trail.
Take a look at the Jacob Wolf House Historic Site for an example.
Would you like to request a form? Do you have additional questions? Contact Em Kessler for more information. (Emily_Kessler@nps.gov)
Virtual Trail Stories & Experiences
Have you been following the trails on social media? You may have noticed an increase in articles, virtual visits, and virtual kids' activities. People can't travel to experience the trails in person, so NTIR has been working to bring the trails to your house. You can check out recent and past articles, become a junior ranger, take virtual visits to learn more about trail sites, and more - click the links below!
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service