Tuscumbia Landing was Alabama’s first site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail System. It is located at the confluence of the Tennessee River (Pickwick Lake) and Spring Creek, near the foot of Blackwell Road, west of downtown Sheffield. The landing was established in 1824 at the mouth of Spring Creek on the Tennessee River. As large craft could not navigate Spring Creek to reach Tuscumbia, the landing was built to transfer goods to and from the town. The New Orleans and Tuscumbia Steamboat Company was created in 1825, and connected The Shoals with towns on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Wagons were used to haul goods between the landing and the town until a horse-drawn railroad, the first railroad west of the Appalachian Mountains, was built from 1831 to 1832. The line was later extended to Decatur in 1834, bypassing the treacherous shoals on the Tennessee River, and was renamed the Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur Railroad. The depot was built in 1832, and was three stories tall. A floating wharf was connected to the uppermost floor of the building, while the two lower floors were used for storage.
Thousands of Creek and Cherokee Indians passed through Tuscumbia Landing. Cherokees traveling west on the "water route" of the Trail of Tears via the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers had to disembark their steam ships in Decatur, AL and travel overland on the Tuscumbia, Courtland, and Decatur Railroad since the shoals in the area were not navigable.
A party of 511 Creeks from Wetumpka
arrived at the Landing on December 21, 1835. The Indians, their wagons, beef and corn
were embarked on December 23 on a small steamboat and two keel boats and carried to
Waterloo for transfer to a larger boat (Foreman 1932: 142-143, 275). A party of
Cherokees in 1837 included the noted chiefs Major Ridge and his son John Ridge. The
Cherokees came by river to Decatur and transferred to the railroad cars. Ridge's
party reached Tuscumbia at dark on March 10, 1837, and camped at the Landing to wait
for the boats to take them down the river. On March 14, they continued downriver on
the steamboat Newark (Wilkins 1970: 291). Another contingent of 875 Cherokees
remained at the landing several days in June, 1837, before boats could be secured for
them. During this time two childred died, and about 100 Indians escaped and fled to
the woods.
The Cherokees’ arrival at Tuscumbia Landing by train on March 9 and 10, 1837 was reported in two separate accounts in the March 17 edition of The North Alabamian:
“This much and ever-to-be-pitied Tribe are now on their way to their new home west of the Mississippi. They were detained at our Landing some days, awaiting the departure of the steamboat which was to bear them on their journey from the land and the graves of their fathers; and during that time numbers of them, old and young, visited our town, and excited universal admiration, by their correct and orderly deportment, and the sympathy which their hard fate naturally suggested to the minds of our citizens. In these visits, as well as in their conduct at the ‘camp,’ I remarked indications of their rapid advance towards the better traits of civilized life, which few of our people have given them credit for, and at which I was equally surprised and pleased.”
During the summer of 1838, Cherokee detachments headed by Lt. Edward Deas and Lt. R.H.K. Whiteley attempted to travel from Ross Landing, Tennessee, to Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, via the water route. These detachments floated down the Tennessee River to Decatur. Due to low water and potential difficulties navigating through Muscle Shoals, they rode on the railway west to Tuscumbia Landing and then boarded boats headed downriver.
During the Civil War, the landing was heavily damaged in April 1862 by Colonel John Basil Turchin's troops; it was completely destroyed by General Grenville M. Dodge in April 1863, in the lead-up to Streight's Raid. Following the war, Florence became the port of choice in the Shoals, as the warehouses at Tuscumbia were never rebuilt. The site contains six limestone foundations of the main depot along the river, as well as foundation walls of a terminal at the top of a bluff and the remnants of a wagon road.
Read a firsthand account of the passage through Tuscumbia Landing by Edward Deas.
Tuscumbia Landing is not currently open to the public, as it is located in the disused and deteriorating George H. Carter Park in Sheffield. Access to the park is restricted. Arrangements to visit the site should be made ahead of time by contacting the Sheffield Parks and Recreation Department at (256) 386-5615.
SOURCES:
http://msnha.una.edu/portfolio/tuscumbia-landing/
Wikipedia
(Fleischmann 1971: 55-56; and Letters Received by the Office of Indian
Affairs, 1824-1854: microfilm M 234).
https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/82002002_text
https://digitalalabama.com/alabama-historic-places-landmarks/tuscumbia-landing-sheffield-alabama/6838
