Underground Railroad Free Press

News & Views on the Underground Railroad • Vol. XVIII, no. 101, May 2023

Published bimonthly since 2006, we bring together organizations and people interested in the historical and the contemporary Underground Railroad. Free Press is the home of Lynx, the central registry of contemporary Underground Railroad organizations, and the Free Press prizes awarded annually for leadership, preservation and advancement of knowledge, the community's highest honors. Underground Railroad Free Press is emailed free of charge around the 15th of odd-numbered months.

In This Issue: Three Driving Tours

• Chautauqua County, New York

• Frederick County, Maryland

• Nationwide

The following websites offer the best opportunities we are aware of to explore the Underground Railroad safe-house by safe-house, route by route on the Internet or by visits.

Chautauqua County, New York, Map of Sites, Routes and People

This prize-winning interactive map of more 1,100 sites, routes and historical Underground Railroad personages is a best-in-class tour de force of local research and application of geographic information systems. The project's lead researcher and its cartographer have both won Free Press prizes for their work in producing this best Underground Railroad map to date.

https://themappingservice.com/project/ugrr

Underground Railroad Free Press Tours and Sites Map of Frederick County, Maryland

This map and its accompanying tour guide lay out graphically the 70+ sites and routes located in Frederick County, Maryland, and nearby that, verified or according to oral tradition, were active in the Underground Railroad. The map, developed by Free Press, is color-coded to indicate proven versus suspected sites. The guide contains three driving tours of sites with directions. Free Press is headquartered in this county.

http://www.urrfreepress.com/index_files/Underground_Railroad_Tours.pdf

Network to Freedom Nationwide Listings of Sites, Routes and People

The National Park Service's Network to Freedom program maintains an extensive listing of verified Underground Railroad safe-houses, routes and other places. Most of these listings have a Wellman Scale rating of 5—documented authenticity—which comprise about 4 percent of claimed Underground Railroad sites. To provide broader context, the listings include elements that were opposed to the Underground Railroad such as capture sites and courthouses.

https://home.nps.gov/subjects/undergroundrailroad/explore-ugrr-locations.htm