Trail of Tears State Forest

Trail of Tears, one of Illinois five state forests, is located 5 miles northwest of Jonesboro and 20 miles south of Murphysboro. It lies within the southern section of the Ozark Hills, among one of the most rugged landscapes in Illinois. The site is accessible from Illinois Route 127 (on the east) and Route 3 (on the west). It encompasses 5,114 acres and includes the Union State Nursery, which is operated by the DNR s Division of Forest Resouces. Site management goals include the growing of timber for forest products, protecting watershed, providing places for outdoor recreation, and protecting ecosystem and wildlife habitat. The area once was used entensively by prehistoric Native Americans, who were pushed south and west around 1803, as settlers of European descent entered. In 1838-39 the Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw nations were forced by the U.S. Army to move from the southeast to reservations in Oklahoma Territory. They overwintered at makeshift camps 2 miles south of the forest, where bitter cold and starvation claimed hundreds of lives. The cruel trek came to be known as the "Trail of Tears," an event now memorialized by the state forest s name. In 1929, the state purchased 3,000 acres, first known as the Kohn-Jackson forest, later the Union State Forest and finally, in 1978, the Trail of Tears State Forest. Beginning with World War I veterans in the early 1930s, a series of camps was established at the site, including the Civilians Conservation Corps (CCC), temporary work camps for World War II prisoners of war and finally a state corrections youth camp, which closed in the late 1960s. The CCC, in particular, had a profund effect on the forest, as it built many of its stonework creek walls, log shelters and roads.