Whitfield County
Visitor Information Center
305 Depot Street
Dalton, GA 30720
Before Dalton was incorporated in 1847, it was known as Cross Plains and home to the Cherokee. The Crown Gardens and Archives is a great place to begin the discovery of Dalton’s Native American past, as well as the Civil War and certainly the beginning of the multi-billion dollar flooring industry. Come discover Dalton, we truly have something for everyone.
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Bandy Heritage Center for Northwest Georgia
650 College Drive
Dalton, GA 30720
Since 2008, the Bandy Heritage Center, a community outreach initiative of Dalton State College, has become the research, preservation, and interpretive history resource hub for Northwest Georgia’s many communities. The Center’s mission of bringing all the region’s material history and culture into a central marketplace provides students, researchers, genealogists, authors, and history lovers with a facility consolidating the diverse strains of history, culture, and life in Northwest Georgia. As the official repository of record for the GA Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association (GA TOTA), the Bandy Heritage Center possesses an impressive collection of documents, images, maps, and other media relating to the Georgia’s Indigenous history. As such, it is the perfect place to begin your research into the history and culture of the Muscogee Creek and Cherokee communities which made the region their homeland.
Red Clay State Historic Park
1140 Red Clay Park Road SW
Cleveland, TN 37311
Red Clay served as the seat of Cherokee government from 1832 until the forced removal of the Cherokee in 1838. By 1832, the state of Georgia had stripped the Cherokee of their political sovereignty, and had banned all political activity in Georgia. As a result, the Cherokee capital was moved from New Echota, Georgia, to Red Clay, Tennessee. Red Clay was the site of 11 general councils—each attended by up to 5,000 people. Those years were filled with frustrating efforts to ensure the future of the Cherokee. One of the leaders of the Cherokee, Principal Chief John Ross, led their fight to keep Cherokee’s eastern lands, refusing the government’s efforts to move his people to Oklahoma. Controversial treaties resulted in the surrendering of land and their forced removal. Here, at Red Clay, the Trail of Tears really began, for it was at the Red Clay Council Grounds that the Cherokee learned that they had lost their mountains, streams, and valleys forever. Accordingly, Red Clay is a certified interpretive site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. The Park is located in the southwest corner of Bradley County in Tennessee, just above the Tennessee-Georgia state line. The park encompasses 263-acres of narrow valleys and forested ridges, which rise to 200 feet or more above the valley floor. The site is also home to the Blue Hole Spring—a deep limestone spring that flows into Mill Creek, a tributary of the Conasauga and Coosa River system. The spring was used by the Cherokee for their water supply during council meetings.
Photo by Trish Milburn - Tennessee Magazine
