Underground Railroad Free Press
News & Views on the Underground Railroad • Vol. XVIII, no. 102, July 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. Readership is about 26,000.
In This Issue: Prizes, Hikes, Bikes, and a New Look
The Annual Free Press Prizes
A morning hike on an Illinois Underground Railroad route
An 8-day catered Underground Railroad bicycle tour
A new look for Free Press
Nominate and a Person or Group for a 2023 Free Press Honor
Underground Railroad Free Press is again pleased to honor the international Under- ground Railroad community with the annual Underground Railroad Free Press Prizes.
Free Press encourages interested parties to submit nominations for the 2023 Prizes which will be announced on September 15 for outstanding achievements in contemporary Underground Railroad leadership, preservation, and the advancement of knowledge. The three prizes are the highest honors bestowed in the international Underground Railroad community.
As the Underground Railroad was international, Free Press encourages nominations of Canadians and others. Persons or organizations nominated in a previous year are eligible to be nominated again.
Nominees should not be made aware that they are being nominated. Except for the three Prize winners, names of nominees are not revealed by Underground Railroad Free Press. Please direct questions to info@urrfreepress.com.
Winners of the three 2023 prizes will be announced by Underground Railroad Free Press in the September 15, 2023, issue and prizes awarded soon afterward.
Please visit our website to download nomination forms and instructions or for more information on the prizes. Nominations may be completed only on these forms and are submitted via email.
The following 2022 Free Press Prize winners won against highly qualified competition.
Chicago’s Freedom Trail
The Little Calumet River Underground Railroad Project announces a guided 2.5-hour walk-and-ride tour on Saturday, August 5, along the Underground Railroad escape route beside Chicago’s Little Calumet River. Says the organizers, “Hear the fascinating story of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of escaped freedom seekers who traveled the Underground Railroad through south Chicago seeking freedom and often found refuge and replenishment with local abolitionists such as the Jan Ton family who owned a farm near Beaubien Woods Forest Preserve on the Little Calumet River.”
Leading this outing are Professor Larry McClellan, foremost authority on the Underground Railroad in Northern Illinois, and Tom Shepherd of the Little Calumet River Underground Railroad Project. Co-sponsored by the Forest Preserves of Cook County and the Calumet Heritage Project, the tour will depart from Chicago’s Beaubien Woods Boat Launch at 134th Street and the Little Calumet River front at 10:00 AM. The tour will be partly by bus, partly by moderate walking. You will want to dress appropriately for the weather. Registration for this free event is required as seating is limited. Register at here.
For further information, email Tom Shepherd at TomShepherd2001@yahoo.com or call him at (773) 370-3305.
Rather Bike Than Hike?
Since 2008, Free Press has reported on Adventure Cycling’s Underground Railroad bicycle route running from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada and on the group’s 29 other bike routes across the United States and Canada. Adventure Cycling is now offering a new catered eight-day cycling tour along an important Underground Railroad freedom trail in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
On September 16, the tour will leave Washington, DC, and head west along the canal tow path shown here in the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Park. The park, canal and towpath run 185 miles along the Maryland side of the Potomac River to Cumberland, Maryland. There, the tow path ends and joins the Great Allegheny Passage trail that goes 145 miles further to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. From there, riders will be driven back to Washington, arriving September 23.
On Adventure Cycling's fully supported tours, personal and group gear is transported end to end by an accompanying vehicle . Riders enjoy catered meals each day and camp together with occasional indoor overnight stays. Other indoor lodging options are often available.
If you are interested, learn more at https://tinyurl.com/2023BikeTour. Hurry to sign up as the tour is beginning to fill up. Free Press can vouch for the outstanding beauty of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Park, as we are headquartered three miles from it and have visited it often.
The canal’s tow path is a well-documented Underground Railroad route that saw heavy fugitive traffic during the Underground Railroad era.
James Curry, a freedom seeker from Person County, North Carolina, wrote of his walking the Canal's tow path in 1842 in his flight to freedom. The owner of Ferry Hill Plantation in Washington County, Maryland, wrote of his capturing freedom seekers who were using the canal's tow path as their escape route. In 1841, freedom seeker Charles Bentley, as he later stated in his autobiography, crossed the Potomac River, the canal and its tow path, and “went up alongside Catoctin Mountain.” African American Joseph Blanhum operated a ferry crossing the Potomac River about halfway along the canal. In 1844, Blanhum was caught aiding freedom-seekers by ferrying them across the Potomac from Virginia to Maryland, where they immediately crossed the tow path or used it as their route. Blanhum was tried, fined and sentenced to three years in prison which he served before resuming his ferry business.
Free Press Get a Facelift
Visitors to the Free Press website will see a new look and have a better experience of easier navigation, less clutter, and more visual appeal. http://urrfreepress.com Suggestions are welcome.