Deloris Gray Wood and the Trail of Tears

Deloris Gray Wood of Salem, Missouri is President of the Missouri Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association and serves on the board of the National Trail of Tears Association. She is responsible for getting all the trails marked in the state of Missouri. A participant in the Missouri Folk Arts Program's Community Scholars project since 2010, Ms. Wood reports that her next volunteer project is in the Marcoot Lookout Tower area--just across the road from where she stands in the photo below, on Reynolds County Road 907 and Highway 72.  

Ms. Wood notes that since the leaves have fallen, and hopefully the snakes, ticks, chiggers, and mosquitoes in the Scotia Pond are are gone, she will work next to locate the old Centerville Road of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail into Dent County in the Mark Twain National Forest. 

 Mark Twain National Forest vehicle driven by park attendant who unlocked the gate to this trail. 

A historic survey marker (looks a bit like a coin), and it's right beside the gate above. 

This is some of what Deloris Gray Wood does as the Missouri chair of the National Trail of Tears project.