In the 1830s, thousands of Cherokee Indians passed through Waterloo after the U.S. government forced them to move west on the Trail of Tears. Most came by boat from Tuscumbia and camped there while awaiting transfer to larger steamboats, and during the encampment several births, deaths, and escapes occurred. One party of 1,070 Cherokees traveled overland from Ross' Landing in Tennessee because of low water in the upper river, following the general route of U.S. Hwy. 72 to Florence and arriving there on July 10, 1838, in miserable condition after a 23-day journey. About 17,000 Cherokees were driven from their homeland in the southern Appalachian Mountains, and although most traveled by land through Tennessee and on to Oklahoma, great suffering and about 4,000 deaths occurred along the trail, especially during the winter of 1838-39.
