DECATUR — Located at the bottom of a hill off of Lake Shore Drive is a boulder marking the Potawatomi Trail of Death.
“Approximately 800 Potawatomi Indians passed here on September 26, 1838, during their forced march to Potawatomi Creek, Kansas, after being driven from their land in northern Indiana at gunpoint,” the monument reads.
Although the stone has been sitting on the hill south of Mueller Park and the Decatur Park District’s office since 1994, few people knew about the monument, much less the story behind it and the nearly 80 others marking the treacherous journey nearly 190 years ago.
Community leaders, public officials and members of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association met on Wednesday afternoon to dedicate a direction sign and to honor the Native Americans who sacrificed their land and lives. Records indicate 42 people, 28 of them children, died during the trek.
George Godfrey is the president of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association. His grandmother’s interest in the trail’s history encouraged him to take part in its preservation. “And knowing that I crossed the Potawatomi Trail of Death everyday on my way to work,” he said. “I began researching.”
The sign was erected Wednesday after the dedication.
Markers were placed in various locations along the 660-mile trail. Some remain, while others need to be more visible. The association created the signage with the hopes of offering clearer direction to the Trail of Death markers. “I have a number of these in my garage,” Godfrey said.
However, approval is needed for the signs to be displayed along state patrolled highways.
“It’s kind of like we are on sacred ground here,” said State Rep. Sue Scherer. “They went right by here.”
House Resolution 170, which requested the Illinois Department of Transportation to erect a sign directing people to the Decatur marker, was adopted by state representatives last year.
Like many Decatur residents, Sister JoAn Schullian wasn’t aware of the monument, although it was placed in its spot 30 years ago. “I don’t know much at all,” she said. “As I asked different Decatur people, they didn’t even know the monument was up here.”
Schullian said she wanted to do something about the lack of historical knowledge and contacted Scherer and other important figures to bring signage to the Decatur site. “Two signs are there,” she said about the brown Historical Marker Ahead signs.
According to history, President Andrew Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act on May 28, 1830. Eight years later, Native Americans were forced to travel from Indiana, crossing the Mississippi River, to unsettle land in Kansas.
The trek passed through Decatur on what was later called the Trail of Death.
Approximately 850 members of the Potawatomi tribe took the 660-mile trek. Three weeks were spent traveling through Illinois during a drought before the group crossed the river in Quincy. Several would die along the journey.
According to Mark Sorensen, former president of the Illinois State Historical Society, information about the locations was recorded by the militia leaders, including the distance traveled, the topography, weather, “and the almost daily deaths during that drought-stricken summer and fall,” he said. “Dozens of Potawatomi died in the heat while going across Illinois.”
The Potawatomi Trail of Death Association has several statistics, including information of the trail’s 76 historical markers.
The Decatur monument has a quote from Father Benjamin Marie Petit, a missionary to the Native Americans in Indiana, who traveled with the Potawatomi.
“We soon found ourselves on the grand prairies of Illinois, under burning sun and without shade from one camp to another,” Petit is quoted on the Decatur monument.
Other oral stories have followed along the trail. “Little by little we pick up bits and pieces of information,” Godfrey said.
Local members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Boy and Girl Scouts, local historical societies and Potawatomi relatives contributed to the dedication of other historical markers as well.
Shirley and Bill Willard’s sons were Boy Scouts in Rochester, Indiana, where the Trail of Death began. They were encouraged to become members of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association. The couple traveled to Decatur to be a part of the sign dedication.
“We travel every five years as a caravan, stopping at just about every place that the Potawatomi stopped in the 1838 journey,” Shirley Willard said. “We’ve dedicated historical markers. We’ve reached out to the public to let them know about the Trail of Death, because not too many people knew about it.”
Closest national parks to Decatur, Illinois
Closest national parks to Decatur, Illinois
#1. Gateway Arch National Park (Missouri)
#2. Indiana Dunes National Park (Indiana)
#3. Mammoth Cave National Park (Kentucky)
#4. Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Ohio)
#5. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina, Tennessee)
#6. Hot Springs National Park (Arkansas)
#7. New River Gorge National Park (West Virginia)
#8. Isle Royale National Park (Michigan)
#9. Shenandoah National Park (Virginia)
#10. Congaree National Park (South Carolina)
#11. Voyageurs National Park (Minnesota)
#12. Badlands National Park (South Dakota)
#13. Wind Cave National Park (South Dakota)
#14. Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota)
#15. Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado)
#16. Great Sand Dunes National Park (Colorado)
#17. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (Colorado)
#18. Carlsbad Caverns National Park (New Mexico)
#19. Guadalupe Mountains National Park (Texas)
#20. Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado)
#21. White Sands National Park (New Mexico)
#22. Big Bend National Park (Texas)
#23. Everglades National Park (Florida)
#24. Arches National Park (Utah)
#25. Biscayne National Park (Florida)
#26. Acadia National Park (Maine)
#27. Dry Tortugas National Park (Florida)
#28. Canyonlands National Park (Utah)
#29. Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana, Idaho)
#30. Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)
#31. Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona)
#32. Capitol Reef National Park (Utah)
#33. Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)
#34. Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona)
#35. Saguaro National Park (Arizona)
#36. Zion National Park (Utah)
#37. Great Basin National Park (Nevada)
#38. Glacier National Park (Montana)
#39. Death Valley National Park (California, Nevada)
#40. Joshua Tree National Park (California)
#41. Kings Canyon National Park (California)
#42. Sequoia National Park (California)
#43. Yosemite National Park (California)
#44. North Cascades National Park (Washington)
#45. Mount Rainier National Park (Washington)
#46. Lassen Volcanic National Park (California)
#47. Crater Lake National Park (Oregon)
#48. Channel Islands National Park (California)
#49. Pinnacles National Park (California)
#50. Olympic National Park (Washington)
#51. Redwood National Park (California)
#52. Virgin Islands National Park (U.S. Virgin Islands)
#53. Glacier Bay National Park (Alaska)
#54. Wrangell–St. Elias National Park (Alaska)
#55. Kenai Fjords National Park (Alaska)
#56. Denali National Park (Alaska)
#57. Lake Clark National Park (Alaska)
#58. Gates of the Arctic National Park (Alaska)
#59. Katmai National Park (Alaska)
#60. Kobuk Valley National Park (Alaska)
#61. Haleakalā National Park (Hawaii)
#62. Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park (Hawaii)
#63. National Park of American Samoa (American Samoa)
Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR
Decatur Park District Executive Director Clay Gerhard and State Rep. Sue Scherer help install a new sign marking the Potawatomi Trail of Death after a ceremony Wednesday at Mueller Park in Decatur.
George Godfrey and Kevin Roberts, of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association, and Sister JoAn Schullian get together for a picture with the new sign marking the Potawatomi Trail of Death after a ceremony at Mueller Park in Decatur on Wednesday. “A lot of people just don’t know the history,” said Roberts.
Ceremony attendees approach the stone marker for the Potawatomi Trail of Death, which passed through the area in 1838, at Mueller Park, with Lake Shore Drive in the background, in Decatur on Wednesday.
The rock, placed in 1994, marks the Potawatomi Trail of Death, which passed through the area in 1838, between East Riverside Avenue and East Lake Shore Drive, in Decatur on Wednesday.
George Godfrey, president of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association, talks with Sister JoAn Schullian before a ceremony for the 1838 forced march that passed through the area in Decatur on Wednesday.
George Godfrey, president of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association, speaks during a ceremony for the 1838 forced march that passed through the area in Decatur on Wednesday.