Port Royal was the site one of the earliest colonial communities and trading posts in middle Tennessee , being first settled in the early 1780s as well as being a Longhunter camp as early as 1771 . In the years 1838 and 1839 , the town of Port Royal served as a stopover and resupply station for the Chickamauga Indians along the march to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears and was the last of such in Tennessee on the northern route of the Trail of Tears . Port Royal State Park preserves several sections of the original roadbed used by the Chickamagua and one section is an officially designated roadbed by the National Park Service . Being situated at an important junction of roads and rivers , Port Royal became the only stop on the " Great Western Road " stagecoach line between Nashville , Tennessee , and Hopkinsville , Kentucky , and served as such until the 20th century . In 1977 , the State of Tennessee received the deed to 26 acres ( 105,000 m ² ) of land at Port Royal , and designated it a State Historic Park in 1978
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Port Royal State Park