Adams County Sites Earn National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Recognition

Federal recognition of the Wickerham Inn and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church of West Union as National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom sites will do more than mark two additional dots on a heritage map when the public ceremonies are held April 18. The National Park Service designation opens both sites to NPS grant eligibility, formal technical assistance, and placement in the NPS Passport Program, a nationally recognized travel circuit that drives certified-site visitation. It also binds the sites to ongoing documentation standards and upkeep requirements, meaning Adams County's ability to translate the recognition into sustained heritage tourism depends on the stewardship work that begins after the ceremonies end.

Peter Wickerham built the inn on Zane's Trace near Locust Grove between 1800 and 1801. The brick stagecoach stop and tavern was also a documented node in the Underground Railroad network, used by freedom seekers traveling from West Union and Manchester along Zane's Trace or through Ripley's Eastern Route by way of Red Oak, Decatur, Cherry Fork, Mt. Leigh, and Tranquility. The Wickerhams, who identified as Scotch Covenanters and were staunch opponents of slavery, guided freedom seekers onward into Highland County, with related Ammen and McCague families sharing the legal and physical risks.

At the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in West Union, the documented history centers on Joe Logan, born around 1797, who escaped slavery in North Carolina in 1822, settled in Adams County, and became a conductor on the Underground Railroad. He worked alongside Rev. John Graham, the church's pastor from 1841 to 1849, an outspoken abolitionist who used his home, called Pleasant Hill, as a station for moving freedom seekers further north.

The two new designations bring Adams County's recognized total to four, joining the John T. Wilson Homestead in Tranquility and the Kirker Family Homestead. Andrew Feight, Ph.D., Director of Research and Outreach for the Appalachian Freedom Heritage Tourism Initiative, said the accumulating body of verified sites is beginning to reveal what individual records alone could not.

"With four sites now recognized in Adams County, a clearer picture of the Underground Railroad in the region is coming into focus," Feight said. "These places demonstrate how freedom seekers were aided through interracial cooperation, supported by the antislavery convictions of antislavery Presbyterians, and guided along routes like Zane's Trace. Together, they reveal a coordinated network of people and places that made Adams County a critical corridor to freedom."

The Appalachian Freedom Heritage Tourism Initiative is a nine-county, three-state effort targeting 27 Underground Railroad sites across Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia for Network to Freedom recognition. The project is funded by an Appalachian Regional Commission POWER grant administered by the Lawrence Economic Development Corporation, with Megan McCarty serving as Outreach Specialist for Adams County and Marty Conley, LEDC Tourism Director, overseeing regional coordination. The markers and interpretive materials unveiled April 18 will support local school curricula and a heritage travel corridor spanning the Appalachian tri-state region.

The Network to Freedom program, created by Congress in 1998, lists more than 800 verified Underground Railroad sites, facilities, and programs nationwide. Four recognized sites in a single Ohio county is a meaningful cluster within that federal registry, one that carries real marketing leverage for Adams County tourism but requires consistent, funded maintenance to keep its standing in the program.