By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
ATHENS, Tenn. – In the quaint eastern Tennessee town of Athens is the McMinn Living Heritage Museum which tells the story of that area which includes a rich Cherokee history. That story has been updated recently with a new, fresh Cherokee exhibit.
Brett King, Museum executive director, said, “We’ve had a Cherokee exhibit here since the origins of the Museum. We were looking at it and it was like, ‘this looks very 90s or 80s and it’s time to update it and expand it out a little more’. We really wanted to add more signage and information so people could read and learn more about the history versus what we had before, which was a lot of artifacts and small signs and little descriptions of what they were looking at.”
Betty Boyd, Museum curator, and Brett King, Museum executive director, are shown in front of the updated Cherokee exhibit at the McMinn Living Heritage Museum in Athens, Tenn. on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 25. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photos)
He added, “We wanted to turn it into a thematic narrative where we start from the Paleo period, talk about the importance of the Hiwassee River to the region, the ecosystem, then start progressing through covering the Cherokee culture itself. Then, as the lands and the treaties started occurring between the United States and what eventually led up to the Trail of Tears.”
King spoke of the layout of the exhibit. “We put it in a chronological, left to right, order so people could really get a good grasp of what actually happened here. The Museum itself sits on the Trail of Tears and it went right in front of the Museum…to help educate the public of the importance of that time period and the centrality that this region of the state played in it.”
Betty Boyd, Museum curator, designed the exhibit. “We just did a brief timeline starting with the Paleo-Indian period going all the way up to the Trail of Tears and after the removal. Most of the artifacts we’ve had since the Museum opened. We recently had a few Cherokee baskets donated (by Emily Cate of Athens).”
There is a video that goes along with the exhibit that gives a brief overview of the Hiwassee River Watershed area and the history of Cherokee and other Native Americans that lived in the region.
Boyd noted, “Compared to what it was before, it’s a lot clearer.”
The exhibit took around six months to complete. King stated, “A lot of that was getting the initial research done. Then, once we had the information, figuring out how to display it. Once that was all done, the production and installation went quickly.
Placards in the updated exhibit discuss the Removal era and post-Removal era for Cherokee people in the area.
We did a special project fundraiser to raise the money to upgrade this exhibit so all of the Museum supporters were very enthusiastic – from our board members, to our more prominent donors, to the general membership. They were very supportive to help us make this happen.”
A local woodcrafter, Charles Wood, made a boat for the exhibit that visitors can sit in while watching the video. Boyd said, “We’ve been trying to add more kid-friendly interactive things all throughout the museum, so we wanted to have something where they could sit down.”
King is very happy with the updated exhibit as are patrons. “We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on the design of it and the openness of it. They love the diorama. Kids love coming here.”
The McMinn Living Heritage Museum is located at 522 W. Madison Ave. in Athens, Tenn. You can learn more about the Museum by calling (423) 745-0329, visiting https://www.livingheritagemuseum.org, or following them on social media (Facebook, Instagram). General Admission prices are as follows: Adults $5, Seniors (60+) $3, and Students $3.
