budget,  historic,  outdoors,  travel

New Echota Cherokee Capital State Historic Site

June 2, 2021 /

A couple of months ago, I decided to get the annual pass for the Historic Sites in Georgia as there are many we haven’t visited yet and quite a few within an hour drive. So this past Sunday after church, we stopped by the New Echota Cherokee Captital Historic site. The land and town was the site of the Cherokee National capital from 1825 to 1838 (all my information is from the flyer for the self guided tour).

After the removal of the Cherokee tribes the town disappeared and the land was turned into farmland. In the early 1950s the land was purchased by some local citizens and deeded to the state of Georgia. The Worcester House was restored, the Vann Tavern was moved to this location and other buildings were reconstructed. Archeological findings showed where buildings and roads were.

The above building is a reconstruction of a middle class Cherokee farmstead. Log cabins were the standard Cherokee dwelling by the 1820s. Many buildings were built using hewn logs instead of round logs.

Here are a couple of pictures of the interior. I thought the contrast between this house and the lower class person was very obvious in terms of size and space,  and furnishings. Our family really likes these types of historical sites because we really get an idea of what life was like by observing instead of just reading about history.

The little house below has one small room with a bed and small table and a loft for children I would assume. The smoke house (on the left) is also smaller as well as the stable.

This is such a beautiful place! We had wonderful weather (mid 60s), blue skies and green grasses. It really was nice to have the flyer explaining what we were seeing and we did started with the small museum to learn what happened here.

Below is the council house. The council house served as the capitol building and headquarters of the Cherokee Nation.

It always saddens me to read about the removal of the Cherokee from Georgia, how many died and suffered, the loss of their home and how their land was given in lottery to others. While we have parts of our history to be proud of, there sure are parts that we should be ashamed of. Last summer we went to Cherokee in North Carolina and had another history lesson there.

The Vann tavern above was moved from its original location to this site (we plan to visit the Vann house next Sunday, it is only a few exits from this place) and was used as an inn, a tavern and a store.

I am looking forward to more outings like this and I am hopeful the weather will cooperate. I really love being able to combine, outdoor activity, history lesson and discovering more of my state.

A bientôt!

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