Cherokee tourist information
Welcome to Cherokee, Iowa, a city of 5,369 residents in northwest Iowa in the beautiful Little Sioux River Valley. We are located just south of the intersection of U.S. Hwy. 59 & Hwy. 3, approximately 60 miles northeast of Sioux City, Iowa, 120 miles southeast of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and 50 miles southwest of the Iowa Great Lakes Region.
Cherokee is home to many attractions, including the Cherokee Rodeo held the 1st weekend in June each year, the annual Christmas Parade and the annual Cherokee County Fair
Also found in Cherokee are the Sanford Museum and Planetarium, the Mental Health Institute and MHI Tallmann Museum, community symphony orchestra and an active community theatre.
Cherokee North Carolina
The Southern Appalachian Mountains are believed to be among the oldest on the planet. As early as 1540 the mountains and valleys now known as Cherokee County were explored by DeSoto and inhabited by the Cherokee Indians. The great Tennessee, Hiwassee and Valley Rivers were mined for gold as evidenced by old tunnels, shafts, Spanish cannon balls, pistols bearing the Spanish coat of arms and coin molds found along their river banks.
In the early 1800's as the white man coveted the rich lands and beautiful swift rivers of Western North Carolina, President Jackson sent 7,000 troops into Western North Carolina who built six forts to oversee the removal of the Cherokee to Oklahoma. The largest of these was Fort Butler, built at the present site of Murphy on the Hiwassee River. The removal of the Cherokee along the "Trail of Tears" was described and recorded as "the greatest blot on America's history". More than 4,000 Native Americans died before they reached Oklahoma. Indians who were able to elude their captors hid in the hills and were later granted lands in Cherokee County.
As the white settlers built their forts and towns on the rivers, they farmed near the streams and creeks, and built dams to produce power to operate tub mills, grind flour and create flumes for mining gold. Logging became the first industry in the area and primary means of making a living. Logs flowed down the rivers to the sawmills; rafts, flatboats and canoes brought in supplies. As early as 1820 a Baptist mission school was established at the Old Natchez Town on the Hiwassee River and the first Methodist Church, Harshaw Chapel (a standing historic site) was built in Murphy in 1869.
In 1861 Cherokee County raised 1,100 men for the Confederate Army as the state seceded from the union. In 1865 Kirk's Raiders burned the County Courthouse in Murphy (the first of four courthouse fires between 1865 and 1926). The present Courthouse, now over 70 years old, is constructed of solid masonry and blue marble quarried from the county. Following the Civil War, in 1888, the way of life changed for the better with the introduction of the railroad.
In 1922, the first paved highway opened from Murphy to the Georgia line and the Asheville to Murphy highway opened in 1926. In 1936 The Tennessee Valley Authority started construction of the Hiwassee Dam. The Hiwassee, Valley and Nottely Rivers and their tributaries provided an abundant supply of water to the dam and in 1938, one hundred years after the first families settled in this county, the whole face of these mountains changed when the lights came on in nearly every home, barn and store in the county.
The life of the mountainfolk changed with the introduction of electricity. Progress caught up with the quiet, simple and proud, yet harsh mountain way of life. Over 3,000 people lived in the area when Cherokee County was formed in 1839. By 1860 the population had grown to over 9,000. Today's population is over 24,000, yet Cherokee County still maintains a quiet, simple and proud mountain way of life.
The people of Cherokee County are proud of their heritage and proudly maintain seven properties on the National Register of Historic Places. Some of these are public and can be visited, while others are privately owned. Call the Chamber for information about visiting those that are of interest to you.
Cherokee, Alfalfa County , Oklahoma is located in the center of the "Cherokee Outlet" which was opened for Settlement in 'The Race for Homes" on September 16, 1893. It was a city in name only from that date until February 9, 1901, when it became a reality with the plat and sale of town lots on the grade for the tracts of the Kansas, Mexico and Orient railroad. The town of Erwin, a thriving trade center located at the southeast corner of present Cherokee, moved their firms and homes to the present town site of Cherokee, Woods County, Oklahoma territory when the location of this railroad missed their town by over a mile. The first train arrived February 10, 1903.
The early name selection came about in a meeting of a group of settlers who had staked claims in that race along with businessmen of Hazelton and Attica, Kansas, for the purpose of forming a Stock Company to establish a town. The effort failed because of the scarcity of money for purchase of stock by the settlers. A site was selected one mile west of the present City along with the name Cherokee. That name, however, had seen use in 1894 when a Cherokee Post Office was located for a time on a farm adjacent to the east of the present Ingersoll, and was later moved to the present Junction of U.S. 64 and S.H. 11, two miles north of Cherokee. The growth and permanence of the new town was advanced in 1904 where Denver, Enid and Gulf railroad was induced to change its proposed route through Nash around the Great Salt Plains and to the east to Kiowa because of their belief that the Plains would not support their tracks and traffic of the railroad. That inducement came in the form of engineering proof that a roadbed across the Southwestern part of the plains would support the railway, saving miles from going around the plains and opening markets to two additional towns. Also provided was a $10,000.00 gift of town lots arid right of way to the D.E. & G. from the purchase of a 140 acre farm by Cherokee businessmen and residents, The offer was accepted and the second railroad arrived in 1905. At statehood in 1907, Alfalfa and Major Counties were created out of Woods County and Cherokee was designated as the county seat of Alfalfa County, It was later made permanent in a hotly contested election with Carmen, Ingersoll and Jet, also seeking the County Courthouse. That spirit of assistance for improvements and industry which brought the railroads to Cherokee has carried through out the service companies at the opening of the North Cherokee field in the late 1950's and again in the 1970's for the purchase of a 70 acre industrial site added to the city on the west. Cherokee celebrated their centennial October 19-21, 2001 with over 5000 people in attendance. It was indeed a celebration of community and brotherhood as civic groups partnered together to bring to Cherokee one of the greatest celebrations they had ever had. Civic pride and responsibility has always been evident in the town growth. The homes, schools, churches, clinics and businesses all reflect that pride and response to Civic needs. New business continues to choose Cherokee as their home. Expansions of existing business continues as the business owners bring the needs of the community to their shelves. Our Hospital is scheduled to re-open in Cherokee in 2003 once the remodeling is complete.
by Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department
Cherokee aerial map
Please click on any icon on the Cherokee aerial tourist map, to find close by places, offering hotels and tourist information. You can zoom in and zoom out our touristical map as well as switch between satelite and map view of Cherokee.
Africa | Asia | Caribbean | Central America | Europe | Middle East | North America | Oceania | South America
