Underground Railroad Bicycle Route

The Underground Railroad Bicycle Route, (a joint project of the Adventure Cycling Association and the Center for Minority Health), is another historical route, like the Lewis & Clark Trail Bicycle Route. The route honors the bravery of those who fled bondage and those who provided shelter. This route passes points of interest and historic sites along a corridor beginning in Mobile, Alabama, a busy port for slavery during the pre-civil war era. The route goes north following rivers through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Waterways, as well as the North Star, were often used by freedom seekers as a guide in their journeys to escape slavery. Upon crossing into Ohio, the route leaves the river to head toward Lake Erie and enters Canada at the Peace Bridge near Buffalo, New York. In Ontario, the route follows the shores of Lake Ontario and ends at Owen Sound, a town founded by freedom seekers in 1857. Owen Sound is located on the southern side of Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay. The route is a total of 2027 miles (3264 km) .

Origins of the Route

The Underground Railroad Bicycle Route is the result of a three-year collaboration between the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) and the Center for Minority Health (CMH), part of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Together, they worked to develop a cycling route that would contribute to better fitness and deeper appreciation of American history.

The Missoula, Montana-based ACA, with its focus on bicycle touring, and the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based CMH, with its aim of promoting health and eliminating health disparities, seemed unlikely partners. Dr. Stephen B. Thomas, director of the Center for Minority Health, noted that the partnership required a leap of faith to join forces. Yet the two cultures melded to bring the project to a conclusion.

Heading North

This route can be ridden from early spring in the south through September in the north, depending on the weather. Southern summers will be hot and humid. Alabama and Mississippi are occasionally in the path of tropical storms or hurricanes from June through November. Afternoon summer thunderstorms are typical and sometimes are accompanied by high winds and hail. While prevailing winds are generally light, Lake Erie's shore frequently develops a local wind pattern that may extend inland for a few miles. In southern Ontario, the climate is modified by the Great Lakes. Spring brings the tornado season, and southern Ontario has the highest frequency of tornadoes in Canada. In summer, thunderstorms produce heavy downpours, hail, damaging winds and occasional tornadoes.

The southern terminus of the route is in Mobile, Alabama, and follows several river courses northward. In the 1800s Mobile was a port for ships to unload enslaved Africans. The Tensaw River, Alabama River, and Tombigbee River flow into Mobile Bay, and were used as guides for freedom seekers to escape northward. Besides the lush green scenery and the many small towns this route passes through, a host of museums, historic parks, and visitor centers bring the region's history alive.

Historical road plaques are abundant, and riders can read about Indian massacres and the German prisoner-of-war camp in Aliceville, Alabama. One can camp at Historic Blakeley State Park where the last major battle of the Civil War was fought, occurring on the day that General Robert E. Lee surrendered in far-off Virginia. There are churches to visit while pedaling past town squares of courthouses and Confederate memorials, tall loblolly pines and the brown waters of the Tombigbee and Tennessee Rivers.

Just north of Fulton, Mississippi the route joins the Natchez Trace Parkway for convert|10|mi|km. The area of western Tennessee and Kentucky is rich in American Indian and Civil War history. This area also has many rollercoaster hills. Shiloh National Military Park and the Fort Donelson National Battlefield are along the route. Riders also follow The Trace Road through the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, an expanse of woods where bison roam. No commercial vehicles are allowed on this road, and a convert|45|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on limit is enforced. Upon reaching the Ohio River, once the dividing line between the slave and free states, the route heads northeast along the river.

The Borderland

Riding close to the Ohio River in the tri-state Kentucky/Indiana/Ohio region, cyclists are in the Borderland, a narrow strip of land lining both sides of the river that saw some of the Underground Railroad’s most intense activity, and where a concentration of physical evidence from those days still exists. The towns of New Albany, Lancaster and Madison in Indiana, and Augusta, Old Washington and Maysville in Kentucky all have buildings, churches, homes or sites to visit. Roads are generally narrow and winding with low traffic. The route alternates between the river and inland.

At Maysville, Kentucky, the route cross the river into Ohio, and then flows downstream a few miles to Ripley, which comprises a 55 acre National Historic District. Among numerous Underground Railroad conductors active in Ripley, John P. Parker and the Rev. John Rankin stand out. Parker, an iron worker and inventor, was a former slave who had purchased his freedom. As a conductor, he would slip back into slave territory to help freedom-seekers find their way from Kentucky to Ohio. Rankin, a Presbyterian minister, along with his large family, provided shelter to hundreds of runaways in their home high above town on Liberty Hill. Of an estimated 2,000 freedom-seekers through Ripley, most stayed with the Rankins. Their house could be identified at night from the river by the candle in its window.

There is a convert|16|mi|km|sing=on spur into downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. The city holds numerous sites relating directly to Blacks’ struggle for freedom, including the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the Harriet Beecher Stowe House. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center highlight the heroics and tragedies associated with the Underground Railroad. Exhibits include the Slave Pen, moved to the center from a farm in Mason County, Kentucky. It is a small log structure used to store as many as 75 slaves waiting to be shipped to and sold in the Deep South.

Ohio

From Milford north to Xenia, the route follows a grade that beginning in the mid-1800s served an “overground” railroad. After the trains stopped running in the 1970s, the route was turned into a rail-trail for cyclists and other non-motorized travelers. The trail parallels the Little Miami State and National Scenic River, creating the option of stashing the bike for a day and checking the scenery by canoe. Canoe rentals and shuttles are available at several area liveries. One of the longest paved rail-trails in America, the Little Miami Scenic Trail offers convert|50|mi|km of cycling along the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route. The car-free trail winds amid a landscape of rolling farmlands, towns, river cliffs, and hardwood forests. A host of warblers and other songbirds provide background music and riders may spot whitetail deer, coyote, and beaver.

The growing community of Springboro is reached by the Springboro Spur from Waynesville. Founded by anti-slavery Quaker Jonathan Wright in 1815, Springboro evolved into one of the most frequented stopovers for freedom seekers. It’s estimated that some 4,000 escaped slaves traveled through Springboro onbetween 1815 and 1864. Today, the downtown district holds more documented Underground Railroad safe houses than any community in the state, at least one of which can be overnight lodging: the 1815 home of town founder Wright, the oldest home in Springboro. Now known as the Wright House Bed & Breakfast, visitors can view a hiding place built for runaway slaves that’s squeezed between the second story and the attic, as well as a collection of antiques and artifacts from the period.

The majority of roads in Ohio are rural and tend to be excellent for bike touring, with smooth blacktop. The route travels through many small towns where traffic will increase during commuting hours.

In Wilberforce, an unincorporated community just northeast of Xenia is the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center. The museum’s mission is to teach visitors about Black history and culture, beginning with African origins and stretching to present times. The museum’s theater screens the award-winning Music As a Metaphor, a half-hour video tracking the origins and evolution of Black music from its African roots to the popular music of the 1950s.

The route skirts the state capital, Columbus, on the west and north sides, but riders should expect higher traffic along this portion. Continuing into and through northeast Ohio, towns with ties to the Underground Railroad include Oberlin, Hudson, and Ashtabula.

Oberlin is home to Oberlin College, among the first colleges in the United States to admit African-American students. Sites in town include the Westwood Cemetery, the resting place for many abolitionists and freedom seekers; and the First Church of Oberlin, which served as the headquarters of the Oberlin Anti-Slavery Society. It was here that memorial services were held for John Copeland and Shields Green, two men hanged for participation in abolitionist John Brown’s 1859 raid on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Not far east of Oberlin is Hudson, Brown’s boyhood home. The early abolitionist movement ran strong in Hudson, which in 2000 became the first town in northern Ohio to receive a state Underground Railroad historical marker, commemorating the community’s involvement in the anti-slavery movement.

Ashtabula County occupies the extreme northeast corner of Ohio. The area held three dozen Underground Railroad safe houses. The route follows the Western Reserve Greenway, a linear park following the former right-of-way of the Penn Central Railroad. A dozen Underground Railroad interpretive markers line the convert|27|mi|km of the greenway in Ashtabula County, identifying such sites as the Hubbard House, which is adjacent to Walnut Beach in the city of Ashtabula. The safe house was considered a northern terminus of the railroad, as escaped slaves would go from there by boat across Lake Erie to Canada. It’s now home to an Underground Railroad museum that includes a map showing all known Underground Railroad stations in the area.

Pennsylvania and New York

From Ashtabula into Pennsylvania and New York, riders enjoy a long stretch of waterside riding along Lake Erie, the southern-most of the five Great Lakes. After turning back inland south of Buffalo, riders arrive at Orchard Park, home of the Pedaling History Bicycle Museum and one of the largest collections of antique and classic American bicycles.

There’s history to be explored in the Buffalo/Niagara area, ranging from American Revolution times to the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site. This region became a funnel for freedom seekers due to its remoteness, its proximity to Canada, and the anti-slavery sentiment throughout New York. Consequently, numerous safe houses were active on the U.S. side of the border. Buffalo’s best-known Underground Railroad site is the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church. In the 1850s, the church served as an Underground Railroad safe house, where freedom seekers would hide in the basement waiting to be boated across the Niagara River to Canada by night.

Ontario

After crossing into Canada, from Fort Erie to Niagara-on-the-Lake the route mainly uses the Niagara River Recreation Trail and short portions of the Niagara Parkway along the Niagara River. The route near Niagara Falls is busy in summer, with many tourists.

Numerous plaques memorializing people, structures, and events important to the Underground Railroad and other periods of black history are on or close to the route as riders proceed north through the Niagara area. Examples include a plaque at the Queenston Heights Park in Queenston, commemorating Ontario’s first Coloured Corps; and one in St. Catharines honoring Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman. Considered the Moses of Her People, Tubman lived in this community for nearly a decade.

Murphy Orchards, at the end of the convert|31.5|mi|km|sing=on Murphy Orchards Spur, which begins at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, is a partner in the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. Legend has it that Charles and Libby McClew, who established the farmstead here in 1850, served as Underground Railroad station masters. Among other things, visitors can view a ten-by-twelve-foot space beneath the barn thought to have served as a hiding place. The farm is open to the public, and Underground Railroad tours are offered.

Throughout Ontario the route traverses the Niagara Escarpment, resulting in climbs and descents. This provides a challenge for the fully-loaded cyclist.

Owen Sound, where the route ends, was the terminal of the Underground Railroad. It’s where many former slaves found their freedom, and many settled in the village originally called Sydenham. Every year since 1862 the community has held its Emancipation Picnic, which today celebrates two milestones of freedom: the British Emancipation Act of 1834, and the United States Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

Logistics

In Alabama and Mississippi, services between towns are often limited, so riders need to stock up on water and carry extra snacks. After entering Ohio, the route sees towns at frequent intervals, and many more campgrounds. If riding this route early in the spring, more northern campgrounds might not be open yet so riders should confirm opening dates. Conversely, some cyclists may want to do the northern portions of this route during the colors of autumn. If so, riders should verify campground availability because some may close after Labor Day.

tates and Provinces on the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route

#Alabama
#Mississippi
#Tennessee
#Kentucky
#Indiana
#Ohio
#Pennsylvania
#New York
#Ontario, Canada

ee also

*bicycle touring
*Adventure Cycling Association
*Center for Minority Health

External links

* [http://www.cmh.pitt.edu/cycling.asp Center for Minority Health]
* [http://www.adv-cycling.org/ugrr/index.cfm Adventure Cycling Association]
* [http://mac10.umc.pitt.edu/u/FMPro?-db=ustory&-lay=a&-format=d.html&storyid=7513&-Find University of Pittsburgh University Times]
* [http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/travel/18comingsgoings.html New York Times]
* [http://www.getoutzine.com/node/1 "Freedom Ride" from Get Out! magazine]