Ten years were spent in an attempt to educate the public for the experiment and it was not until December 1825, that Featherstonhaugh was determined to apply for a charter.

[8] After acquiring a vast quantity of unexplored land in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the government sought to document the mineral resources of the territory.

In 1834, Featherstonhaugh, newly appointed as the first US government geologist, was instructed to examine the elevated country between the Missouri and the Red River and report back to Colonel John James Abert of the Topographical Bureau.

[9] In August 1837 after travelling along the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee rivers, Featherstonhaugh joined with Special Government Agent John Mason, Jr. to attend the Cherokee National Council at Red Clay, Tennessee, at the beginning of the crisis that eventually led to the Cherokee Removal, sometimes called the "Trail of Tears".

He spent more than a month with these Indians, and was an eyewitness to the resistance of Principal Chief John Ross and the Cherokee people to the fraudulent Treaty of New Echota.

The public purpose of his visit was to inspect for the federal government the geology of the mountainous regions of Georgia and North Carolina where gold had been discovered, but there was also another covert mission.

However, in a secret memoranda sent to General Winfield Scott in May 1838, he wrote: "Evan Jones, An Englishman of dark, cunning character.

This man many years ago settled as a missionary amongst the Cherokee, knows their language well, and has had a great deal of personal intercourse with them.

This memorandum also lists four other White men living with the Cherokees, analyses tribal politics, and provides an estimate of a possible military confrontation with the tribe because of the upland topography.