The city of Cleveland is located in Bradley County, Tennessee, approximately 33 miles northeast of Chattanooga and 120 miles north of Atlanta, GA. Situated in the foothills of the beautiful Smoky Mountains, Cleveland was established as the county seat of the new Bradley County in 1837, and so named in honor of Revolutionary War commander Colonel Benjamin Cleveland. Prior to 1837, the region was occupied by a large portion of the Cherokee Nation, and Colonel Return J. Meigs, working on behalf of the U.S. Government Cherokee Agency, owned property between what is now Cleveland and the nearby town of Charleston. Meigs served as an agent within the Cherokee Nation to promote the Natives’ rights in treaty negotiations and to encourage them to establish a republican form of government. However, when the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson, the region’s Cherokee inhabitants were forcibly evacuated in what would become known as the Trail of Tears. Cleveland’s Cherokee heritage is honored throughout the city and surrounding areas in place names, art and sculpture, such as The Cherokee Chieftain, which, carved from a tree by sculptor Peter Wolf Toth in 1974, stands proud as focal point of downtown Cleveland’s Johnston Park.

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