Tremont Prep!

This week we're spending a lot of time preparing for our expedition next week to the Great Smoky Mountain Institute at Tremont.  We've made a simple outline of the major historical events that happened at/around the Tremont area.

This timeline will help guide us along our preparatory investigations of Tremont and the Great Smoky Mountains.  We are going to spend time this week looking at the Cherokee nation and their removal in the early 1830s from their home in the Smoky Mountains due to the passage of the Indian Removal Act.  We will take a closer look at their experiences along the Trail of Tears and their 1000 mile journey from Tennessee to Oklahoma.  The students will usurp the role of a Cherokee Indian traveling along the Trail of Tears and write a letter home detailing their experiences and what they are observing on the Trail.  We'll also look at what the settlers did who moved in when the Cherokee were forcibly moved out (logging, railroads), and then wrap up our prep with the establishment of the National Park in 1934 and the Civilian Conservation Corps help in reforesting the area and creating the park that we'll visit next week.  We'll also check out some relevant videos thanks to PBS.org and its information on the Indian Removal Act.

All in all, it should be an informative week that will hopefully well-prepare us for our expedition to the Great Smoky Mountains next week!

Stay tuned for photos, videos, and stories to come of our expeditionary week at Tremont!