"New Echota - Cherokee Capital, State Historic Site" Calhoun by Stephen-KarenConn

In 1825, the Cherokee national legislature established a capital called New Echota, near present-day Calhoun, at the headwaters of the Oostanaula River. New Echota marked a change in Cherokee government from a matriarical clan system to a new constitution and form of government with a legislature and court patterned after that of the United States.

The first Indian language newspaper was published here, and a court case was heard which was carried all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. A treaty, which the vast majority of Cherokees believed to be fraudulent, was signed at New Echota in 1835, relinquishing Cherokee claims to lands east of the Mississippi River. This began the assembly of Indians for removal west on the infamous Trail of Tears, one of the blackest marks on American history.

Today, visitors can see several original and reconstructed buildings on a one-mile self-guided tour.