Cherokee Heritage Center

The Heritage Center is located on the site of the mid-19th century Cherokee Seminary building in Park Hill, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tahlequah, and was constructed near the old structure.

[1] The Cherokee Heritage center hosts an extensive collection of historic documents, art, cultural objects, and relics from the 1830s march along the Trail of Tears.

Also on the grounds is the Adams Corner Rural Village which depicts a typical Cherokee settlement after removal to Indian Territory.

Retired Army Colonel Marty Hagerstrand is credited as the founder of the Cherokee Heritage Center in 1962.

The late Dr. Jack Frederick Kilpatrick, a noted scholar of Cherokee heritage and student of Cherokee history (then Professor of Music at Southern Methodist University) offered substantial guidance and technical advice during the planning period and during construction of the village.

Architect Boyd also researched the Cherokee past, with particular attention to structures, and arrived independently at a "format" for the ancient village which corresponded basically to previous concepts developed by Hagerstrand and Kilpatrick.

Starting with a work crew of twelve full-blood Cherokees, the initial effort involved selective clearing of the jungle of vines, bushes and trees which covered the entire site, and filling the sink holes that had a century before been a small basement under the old Cherokee seminary building, as well as excavating and salvaging foundation rock from the old seminary for later use.

A three-month "villager" training program, conducted in cooperation with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and NSU, was instituted in the late Spring of 1967 using Sequoyah High School facilities.

The village at Tsa-La-Gi was dedicated and opened to the public on June 27, 1967, by Society President Keeler before an audience of over 5,000 people.