The Trail of Tears Monument in Bodenham, Tennessee is placed in the exact spot where Belle’s and Benge.’ Routes crossed in Bodenham.
The monument is built from 66 bricks with each one is the name the “head of the household”, most often the father of a family. The names were collected from the United State Army muster rolls from 1838, to track and count those being forced to walk to the lands in Oklahoma.
These two forced marches, identified as Bell’s Route and Benge’s Route, passed at slightly different times in the fall of 1838. A leader in the Cherokee community was identified as the “conductor.”
John Bell, a white man married to a Cherokee woman, lead a group of 660 pro-treaty Cherokee to Indian Territory.
John Benge was a white man who traded with the Cherokee of northern GA. He had two wives, and the second was from the Cherokee Nation., and he had children from both marriages at about the same time. His group consisted of about 1200 men, women and children.
The dome illustrates some of the stories the people were forced to encounter.