"Efforts to preserve Trail of Tears fitting, proper" editorial in the Voice of the Southern, Jan. 15, 2008.
Illinois Highway 146 between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers is one of the most beautiful stretches anywhere in the state, and it has one of the oldest communities, Golconda. The 60 mile route goes through flood plains into rolling hills and forests. Often, it is in the Shawnee National Forest and through the towns of Vienna, Anna and Jonesboro.
Most folks agree that the spring and fall shows are something special, but it is also the route the hapless Indians traversed on their way to what became Oklahoma on what is now called the Trail of Tears for all the suffering they endured.
This route needs to be preserved, just as those of Marquette and Joliet and Lewis and Clark and their related sites in the state are.
Recently, the National Park Service has dedicated a site along Il-146 as part of the Trail of Tears National Historical Trail.
More interpretive signs are badly needed along the way.
This, like the internment camps, is not one of our prouder moments, but it happened and should be observed. --Cooter
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