Scenic Maryland dedication ceremony for the Potomac-to-Doubs Route of the Underground Railroad at Cooling Springs Farm
Location: Cooling Springs Farm
By Peter Michael of Cooling Springs Farm:
Scenic Maryland, the state affiliate of Scenic America, has designated three Underground Railroad sites in Maryland among its seven 2006 Last Chance threatened historic places in Maryland. The three sites are the Potomac-to-Doubs Route of the Underground Railroad, Bucktown village which is the birth place of Harriet Tubman, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. Scenic America listings do not confer automatic protection to sites but do add one more layer of threatened designation and recognition helping to insulate against developers, industrial encroachment and billboard blight. Go to http://www.scenic.org/ to learn more about Scenic America.
I had the honor of nominating the Potomac-to-Doubs Route of the Underground Railroad where our family farm, Cooling Springs Farm, is located. The farm, founded by the family in 1768, was used as an Underground Railroad safe-house by my great-great-grandparents and enjoys various national, state and local historical designations for its role. It is open to the public for tours and study. For more on the farm and its history, please visit CoolingSprings.org.
Much of the credit for this successful nomination goes to Friends of the Underground Railroad, Inc., the nation’s Underground Railroad preservation and promotion nexus. It and its directors regularly provide much encouragement and support to sites such as Cooling Springs Farm, and it is much appreciated.
In Underground Railroad days, the three-mile Potomac-to-Doubs Route consisted of a secluded series of farm roads which linked several Michael and Michael in-law farms beginning at the Potomac River and going northward to the village of Doubs, Maryland. These old dirt roads, still secluded, and all of the farms but one exist today just as they did 150 years ago, making the Potomac-to-Doubs Route an especially well preserved and identifiable Underground Railroad route. But, because of the very kinds of threats which Scenic America and Scenic Maryland warn against, such still-intact Underground Railroad routes have now become a rarity.
Scenic Maryland will hold a dedication ceremony for the Potomac-to-Doubs Route at 10:00 AM on April 26 at Cooling Springs Farm. Various federal, State and local officials will attend.
For additional information of directions, call 301-874-0236
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