By JOHN WILSON
Chattanooga Free Press Staff Writer
Thursday, 18 April 1996, pA1-2

A group planning a Trail of Tears Interpretive Center at Moccasin Bend is eyeing a location on the Tennessee River in the vicinity of Manufacturers Road in sight of the popular Tennessee Aquarium.

Jay Mills, vice president of the Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park, said the site is outside the boundaries of the proposed national park on the Bend, where the city, county and state own more than 900 acres.

He said siting the museum outside the national park area is preferred "because we do not want to impact the archaeological remains within the park site, nor do we want to be intrusive in a visual sense.'

Earlier a proposal to build an amphitheater on state-owned land at Moccasin Bend ran into heavy opposition and was withdrawn.

Mr. Mills said it is projected that the Trail of Tears museum would be operated by a nonprofit group. He said that would alleviate the federal government of major new expenses associated with construction and operation of the center.

U.S. Park Service officials have cited budget cutbacks and inability to take on certain additional projects.

Mr. Mills said, "If visitors could see the museum from the Aquarium, they would recognize that it is not a long distance away.'

He said there are discussions under way of a water connection between the Aquarium and its allied attractions at Ross's Landing and the proposed museum.

Mr. Mills said the museum at that location "could be the terminus for the Riverwalk and at the same time be the gateway to the Moccasin Bend National Park.'

The 35-year-old archaeologist said the Trail of Tears topic "is something both Native Americans and others as well are increasingly interested in.'

He noted that several detachments of Cherokees went out from Ross's Landing in 1838 in their forced exodus to the west and some went across Moccasin Bend.

"This was one of the primary staging areas when the Cherokees were rounded up. This is where they saw their homeland for the last time and where they said goodbye to the land,' he said.

Harley Grant, a Chattanoogan who is chairman of the Tennessee Commission on Indian Affairs, said he believes if the museum is built that many artifacts taken earlier from Moccasin Bend will be returned.

He said he knows the locations of many such artifacts in museums and private collections.

Mr. Grant said he believes many institutions and individuals would cooperate in making those items available to the Chattanooga museum.

Shirley Hoskins and Shirley Lawrence, who are planning a Cherokee memorial in Meigs County at the location of another departure point for the Trail of Tears, said they believe the two projects can complement one another.

They said the effort in Meigs County is to have a memorial wall in which the names of those who went on the Trail of Tears are displayed and to have an American Indian genealogy center.