Trail of Tears - Benge Route

Wolf Gap's location on Tarpley Shop Road is less than half a mile from the Old Stage Road, which saw more than 1200 Cherokee pass in late 1838 on their forced march from Fort Payne, Alabama to Oklahoma. 

If you were at Wolf Gap on the day of their passage in early October of 1838, you would have heard the clatter of wagon wheels on Old Stage Road, the hoofbeats of mules, oxen, and cattle, and the rustling of thousands of humans trudging along their arduous journey.

muster roll of detachment of emigrating cherokees under charge of capt. john benge

This document was created before the detachment departed Fort Payne, AL. It lists the name of each head of household and counts the number of free and enslaved individuals in their household, in the style of censuses of the era.

Used with the permission of the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art (Gilcrease Museum).

John Benge, a Cherokee himself, was placed in charge of the trek for this group of Cherokee. Their journey began a few miles south of Fort Payne, Alabama, where the group of almost 1,200 Cherokees, 144 enslaved Africans (enslaved by the Cherokee), and several Creek tribal members had been held in a stockade for weeks in preparation for the journey.

They began leaving Fort Payne on September 28th, taking three days to mobilize as the final members began their march on October 1st. The group was equipped with 60 wagons and 600 draft animals, and crossed the Tennessee River at Gunter’s Landing (Guntersville, AL). The group proceeded north through Huntsville, following the Huntsville-to-Elkton Road.

They crossed into Tennessee near present-day Ardmore (Ardmore was not established as a town at that time). They followed the Elkton-to-Pulaski Stage Road north - today’s Old Stage Road and Tarpley Shop Road, leading into Pulaski along present-day Highway 31.

In Pulaski the Benge detachment turned west onto the present day Cemetery Street and crossed Richland Creek at the site of the historic wooden bridge.  The Benge detachment arrived in the Pulaski area during the second week in October of 1838.

After more than 3 months of travel, John Benge’s detachment arrived in Stilwell, Oklahoma on January 11, 1839. Benge reported that during the journey there were 33 deaths, 3 births and 38 desertions.

The Trail of Tears is the one of the most notorious chapters in the history of native people’s interactions with the United States government. The 1830 Indian Removal Act, championed by President Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, authorized the U.S. government to remove native people from southeastern states by any means necessary. Over the course of a decade after the passage of the Act, close to 25,000 native people of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole Tribes were moved out of the southeastern states and onto reservations in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), resulting in at least 5,000 deaths. Over the course of several years there were 17 different detachments, or groups, who followed various paths moving westward.

The Trail of Tears is most commonly associated with Cherokee Removal, as they were the last tribe to sign a removal treaty with the U.S. government. The Cherokee resisted until 1837, when the U.S. Army began to round them up and imprison them in stockades and camps to prepare them for a forced removal. John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee, came to agreement with General Winfield Scott, commander of the Removal forces, that the Cherokees would remove themselves under Ross's supervision. In 1838 the Cherokee began their journey to the west - which brought 1200 of them past this site.