Ohio and the Underground Railroad, Part I
Our friend Jeanne told us about the Ohio to Erie Trail, a 362-mile bike trail from the Ohio River (Cincinnati) to Lake Erie (Cleveland). The trail follows one of the paths of the Underground Railroad, and there’s an app that shows sites of interest along the way (https://ohiofreedompath.stqry.app/. Just our cup of tea!
In Cincinnati we visited the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, with exhibits on the history of slavery and the fight for abolition, stories of the escapes of enslaved people and those who helped them, a slave-pen cabin from nearby Kentucky, an exhibit on modern-day slavery and sex trafficking, and one on the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign and Resurrection City. It was raw American history.
I highly recommend the bike trail to anyone who’s into bicycling (and history). For much of it so far, we’ve paralleled the Little Miami River. It’s fascinating to see how the river can change so dramatically over the course of even a few miles — from a wide, smooth surface to rushing waters over little waterfalls to an almost meandering stream with piles of stones shaping its contours. Here’s one section:
This valley is lovely in springtime, with purple and yellow flowers throughout, including this field of what a passing cyclist identified, in response to my query, as mustard:
On the bike trail we passed the home of the Butterworth family, who helped countless people flee slavery from the 1830s into the 1850s. They concealed them in their home and transported them in a wagon with a false bottom to the next stop along the Underground Railroad. Here’s their house as seen from the trail, no doubt somewhat enlarged since then:
Further up the trail we stayed in Waynesville at the Hammel House Inn, formerly a brothel and, according to staff there, another stop on the UGRR. A Quaker woman who lived across the street at the time described the activities of the Hammel House as ‘bacchanalian revelry and ribald conduct,” from which she attempted to shield her children by parking a wagon in front of her cabin.
On the way north to Waynesville Albert saw a sign for Fort Ancient Earthworks, a 2000 year old site featuring American Indian-made earthen embankments that served as an important ceremonial gathering place for Native Americans. We decided to stay an extra day in Waynesville to head there for a visit. The mounds sit on a bluff about 250 feet above the Little Miami River and were built over the course of 20 generations by what archaeologists call the Hopewell culture. They built the mounds one basket of earth at a time with soil dug with clam shells and the bones and antlers of deer and elk. Misnamed “fort” by early archaeologists under the mistaken impression that it was a military fortress, the site is now recognized as a place of culture and ceremony. Some of the mounds align with summer and winter solstices, and there are two lunar alignments as well.
In Wilberforce I stopped in to the National Afro-American Cultural Center. Wilberforce University was the first Historically Black College/University and home of the first military training program for African-Americans, in 1894. WEB DuBois taught there; Bayard Rustin is an alum. My favorite exhibit was this, on women from or connected to Ohio:
My favorite was Hannah Beachler, who grew up in Centerville and was production designer for the movies Fruitvale Station, Black Panther, and Moonlight, and for Beyonce’s Lemonade. Here’s the cool artwork by Nichole Washington that went along with Beachler’s bio:
Stay tuned for more from the next leg of the Ohio journey. We cycle to Cleveland, and then rent a van and drive to Boston for Liam’s graduation!