LAWRENCE COUNTY, Ohio — The National Park Service has added five new sites in southern Ohio and northeastern Kentucky to its National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, recognizing the role Appalachian communities played in helping enslaved people escape to freedom before the Civil War.
The newly designated sites were approved through the Appalachian Freedom Heritage Tourism Initiative, a multi-county effort supported by an Appalachian Regional Commission POWER grant awarded to the Lawrence Economic Development Corp. and Shawnee State University. Organizers say the initiative aims to preserve historically significant locations while promoting economic development through heritage tourism.
Among the Ohio sites recognized is Union Baptist Church of Blackfork in Lawrence County, founded in 1819 and believed to be the longest continuously active African American church in the state. The church traces its roots to the Stewart Settlement, an early free Black community now commonly known as Poke Patch. Members of the congregation and surrounding settlement assisted freedom seekers traveling routes that connected Ironton, Burlington, Macedonia, Red Hill, and Proctorville to areas farther north in Jackson County…