>> Well, we had just, well, we are together waiting.
Just call us to order whenever you need to, Venus,
but I was just asking Chris and Dawn, maybe Chris first,
have you been involved with the Underground Railroad material
for a long time?
>> Did you say Chris first?
>> Yeah, maybe Chris.
But one of you.
>> Yeah, about 20 years.
>> Yeah, about the same for me, about 20 years.
Dawn?
>> Ooh, three years.
>> Ah.
>> I know.
I'm like a newbie.
I've got nothing on you guys.
But just when I started this position
with the National Forest in Florida.
>> Hi, good afternoon.
Oh, sorry, were you about to say something, Chris?
>> Oh, three years is, I think three years is good.
>> Yeah, yeah.
You can dig a lot.
>> I just wanted to say we have some attendees already filing
in already.
So, we're just going to give this a couple minutes
until we get a couple more people in.
Possibly at 1:03, that's when we'll start.
But, yeah.
>> Okay, well, that's great.
Well, I was, years ago I got involved working
with the historic black community south of Chicago.
And they started talking about Underground Railroad stuff.
And, you know, I think like with many of us,
we grew up thinking the Underground Railroad is what
happened on the east coast.
And that, you know, it didn't happen in other places.
And so it, you know, the last 20,
25 years have been a real process of discovery that,
you know, there was this enormous activity here
in the Midwest.
And, you know, it's been really fun to be a part of it.
>> Good afternoon, everyone.
I'm thinking we'll start the webinar at this time.
Diane joined as an attendee currently.
So, I'm hoping that she's able to talk.
But essentially we were going to start off
with just some quick introductions.
My name is Venus Amadi.
I just support the grants program here
at Network to Freedom.
Today, we are kicking off the Network
to Freedom grant cycle for 2023.
So, I'm just going to go ahead and let Diane introduce herself.
And we'll introduce the rest of our panelists.
>> Hello, Venus.
Can you hear me?
>> Yes, we can hear you.
>> Okay, I don't think I'm on camera,
but that's quite all right with me.
My name is Diane Miller.
I am the National Program Manager
for the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
And I'm really thrilled to hear today from three of our partners
who have been able to make good use of past grant funding.
And I'm very excited to hear their stories on the ground.
So, I won't take away from that.
But thank you.
And I'm looking forward to the conversation.
>> Great. And so for the rest of our Network to Freedom team,
some of them are not here.
So, I'll just go ahead and introduce them.
So, we have Barry Jurgensen from the Midwest region.
He's a coordinator for that region.
Then we have Robin Krawitz with Northeast.
She works with [inaudible] as well.
Oh, Barry's here.
Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself, please?
Barry?
>> He's muted, it looks like.
>> Sorry I'm late.
>> It's okay.
Did you want to introduce yourself?
>> Absolutely, yeah.
Barry Jurgensen.
I'm the Midwest regional manager.
And, yeah, that's about it.
Nice to meet everybody.
>> Great. And the rest of the coordinators
that are not here right now, Robin and Camal,
they might be coming in later.
And we have Christina Cargill.
Would you like to introduce yourself?
>> Sure, Venus.
Hi, everyone.
I'm Winnie.
I'm the GIS intern for the Network to Freedom.
It's good to meet you all.
>> Okay great.
Sheri might be coming in as well.
I think she's having some difficulty with the links.
And then for our panelists today, we have,
we have represented here three Network to Freedom sites.
We're really looking forward to hearing
about how they executed their grants.
So, we have Dr. Larry McClellan from the Ton farm site,
Chris Meinhardt from Constitution Hall, Topeka.
And Dawn Lawrence from Fort Gadsden.
And so without further ado,
would you like to introduce yourselves and your sites?
We can start with Dawn, please.
>> Yeah, hi.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm Dawn Lawrence.
I am the Heritage Program Manager
with the National Forest in Florida.
And what we manage the site Fort Gadsden,
though we've really moved now to incorporate the many threads
of its history by really referring it
to the Forts at Prospect Bluff.
And sometimes known as the Negro Fort as well.
So, this is a site in Florida, the panhandle of Florida,
on the Apalachicola River.
And it's this fort that was built
by the British during the War of 1812.
So, this is, you know, 1814, the British are looking
for a southern theater to launch attacks
on Mobile and New Orleans.
And when they arrived, similar to the previous conflicts
in the Continent of North America, they're looking
to recruit Native American allies.
But they're also looking to recruit enslaved African people
from the United States.
So, they put out a proclamation saying if you can join us,
we'll give you citizenship, you can elicit into the core
of British colonial Marines.
But you didn't have to fight in order to gain your freedom.
And so this offer, you know, really led many folks to want
to self liberate from the United States,
as well as from Spanish Florida.
Because at this time, you know,
this is actually all a part of Spain.
And so what the British found as they arrived in Florida
at this time is that not only were they enticing, you know,
people to self liberate because they had a place to go
where they could be safe and secure in Florida,
but they also found that for centuries prior to their arrival
in 1814, Africans who were enslaved
on the continent had been using the Underground Railroad
to escape to Florida.
So, I'd like to say before the Underground Railroad ran north
to Canada, it ran south to Florida.
Because if you're in one of the southern slave states,
it was much easier to escape to the wilds of Florida.
And at that time, you know, Spain had a system
of enslavement as well, but they really didn't control the entire
State of Florida.
It was very wild at that time.
So, they had Pensacola.
And they had St. Augustine.
And everything else in the middle were people
who became known as Maroons, living with Seminole allies,
Native American allies.
And so this fort, you know,
was held by the British during this conflict.
But eventually the War of 1812 ends.
And now there's a bunch of people who, of African ancestry,
are looking for a new life.
So, some of them took the offer of the British
and were transported to Trinidad where they were given land
and tools and supplies and made a new life there.
But many people, you know, it's a time of real choice.
And a lot of conflict is going
on in Florida at this time as well.
You know, you've got American expansion.
They really want Florida as a state.
You've got Spain, which is really concerned about,
you know, the Americans looking at them
like they're a harbor for the enslaved.
And inciting slave rebellion.
And so some people decided that it was a better course
of action to stay at the fort.
And the British commander
of the fort left him everything he could.
All of their supplies, cannons, ammunition.
And so upwards of 300 people.
We think any time between 1,000 to 300 people
of African ancestry, including, you know,
some Native American allies coming through,
lived at this fort.
For 15 months, we're talking complete freedom
from the control
of any colonizing power, any government.
So, a community entirely run for and by Maroon people.
And the unfortunate part is
that if they didn't have the attention
of the Americans before, they did at this point.
And it was only 20 miles from the border with Georgia.
So, we see significant fear mongering about this,
the largest, what was probably the largest free black community
at this time.
And they're really looking to destroy them.
So, they incited a provocation with the fort
under the General Andrew Jackson's orders.
And after about a 10 day siege,
gun votes from Americans launched a superheated
cannonball and destroyed the fort,
killing almost all the 300 people who lived there.
So, this is really a place of extreme significance
and so much history that we have the pleasure to manage
as a national history landmark, as well as a site
on the Network to Freedom.
And so with that, you know, comes a great responsibility.
And one of the things we did, you know, as we pursued,
you know, this grant in particular,
was how can we tell the story of a people
who were never afforded the opportunity
to leave their story behind.
And that's what archeology is really good at is tapping
into those hidden histories.
Because, like I said, we have a great responsibility
to tell the fullest picture of the story that we can.
And so in 2018, we have something not so great happen
to us, and that was a Category 5 hurricane called Michael,
came and hit the site.
And that caused massive,
we're talking those big live oak trees, upturned within the site.
But this kind of led us with an opportunity, you know,
we don't want to do a lot of archeology at our site
because of the significance,
and because of all the lives that were lost there.
But with these upturned trees, we knew we had a chance
to be able to take a peek into the soil,
a peek into what was left behind the people who lived there.
And so pursuing this grant, we were able to collect that data.
So, we went out and we pulled out some of that information.
We hired people to come out and excavate.
And we're able to get a glimpse at the lives of the people
who lived there, and ultimately lost their lives there.
So, we are incredibly fortunate to receive this grant.
It's added a much fuller picture of the story.
And so here we can kind of demonstrate a little bit
of what I had mentioned.
It's me. This is what we're talking
about when I say these massive trees upturned.
You know, you've got these huge root systems.
And these two are at different levels of kind
of excavation at this point.
And it's kind of a novel way of doing archeology.
Right? But we'll take whatever we can get.
Archaeologists aren't too picky.
So, we kind of, you know, went through,
and we corded all these off, and we recorded
as much information as possible.
Usually you think of us digging down,
but this time we were digging, you know,
kind of sideways to access that data.
So, turning some lemons into lemonade.
If we can look at the next slide, Venus.
This is the fort that we're talking about.
So, you can see the faint slide around the outside edge.
That's the British fort.
That's a 16 acre fort.
And the center of that fort is
where the powder magazine was that had exploded.
And then the smaller fort you see,
that's actually Fort Gadsden, which was built
by the Americans in 1818.
So, kind of been trying to weasel away, you know,
walk away with Florida as a state.
And it was really stopped being used in 1821
when Florida did become a state.
So, you can see why we've kind of moved away from the name.
And we like to say that we've got three forts
at this one place.
Because to say that the British made the fort,
and then the Maroons never did anything with it, you know,
is kind of taking away their agency.
So, you've really got a lot of work going on by a lot
of different groups at this site.
Yep, that next slide.
So, this is the exciting stuff that we find as archaeologists.
I know it probably doesn't look like much when you see it on TV.
But this is really, it tells us a lot about, you know,
the lives of the people who lived there.
And so this is just an example of the kinds of things
that we are finding in those root balls.
And one of the things that this should drive home for folks,
especially the way the fort had been managed
in the past, it's not a fort.
Right? This is a community, a community of Freedom Seekers.
And all of these items, you know, the not ammunition
or cannonballs or anything like that.
These are things that are intimately associated, you know,
with the lives of these people.
Next slide, please.
>> That was the last slide.
Did you want me to go to a particular
>> Nope, that's fine.
I couldn't remember how many I gave you.
See, I was just going to keep going
and steal everyone else's thunder.
But that is all for me.
Thanks so much for letting me share that story with you.
>> Terrific.
>> Thank you, Dawn.
That was amazing to learn about your project.
We're going to go over to Constitution Hall,
Chris Meinhardt.
>> Hi, everyone.
I'm in Topeka, Kansas.
And I've been a volunteer with the project for about 20 years.
That is the Network to Freedom site.
And we've come to call it the free state capital.
But it's known in Kansas history as that,
and Constitution Hall in Topeka.
I got involved because this building came up for demolition.
And I was on a historical organization,
and joined many others who were not in that organization
to attempt to begin to save that building from demolition.
Long story short, we, of course, prevented demolition,
and were able to acquire the property.
So, I kind of get a little different perspective
than you, Dawn.
I thought I would share with you all some of what we did
to gain local and even state support in this case,
which was needed, primarily local support.
I mentioned that a bunch of us got together,
and there were a lot of us, not in this historical organization,
so we formed a new organization and named it Friends
of the Free State Capital.
And we, we work from all different walks of life
and personalities and interest,
but we all got along pretty well in our new group.
It took, it took some time.
Then we began to consult
with the State Historic Preservation Office and found,
and mostly it was understood pretty quickly
that this particular building would be difficult to register
as a national register property.
It was in very good condition.
A back wall was half missing,
and the building had been abandoned for a long time.
It was in downtown Topeka on the main, on the main street
across from an old federal building, in an area downtown
that had, you know, began to deteriorate and be abandoned.
So, we wondered, well, this, the more we looked into it,
the more we found that we were probably on a good course to try
to at least save it, if not at least preserve it,
if not eventually restore it.
So, it was recommended that we get in touch
with the National Park Service.
I know that we, it's been a long time, I know we did,
we kept in touch with them, and probably about a month
or two months afterward, we got in touch with someone
who told us that the Network
to Freedom Program had just been established.
And we were put in touch with its initial staff.
>> Whatever your table happens to look like.
>> We were put in touch
with this initial staff [inaudible] gave us a lot
of advice.
Long story short on that one, we filled in an application,
took quite some time, because we were [inaudible] how
to fill out an application.
You know, we let the Network to Freedom staff know the condition
of the building, and worked with them about that.
And it was listed.
Well, there was still the question
of how to begin restoration.
And that, knowing you,
or thinking you all are headed toward an application process,
I wanted to share with you, again,
what we, how we went about it.
We just looked at every, we made a list of everybody
who might be supportive that we could approach for advice.
One of the groups was the Kansas Chapter
of the American Institute of Architects.
They came out and did a measurement of the property,
and some basic drawings.
There was a committee of that group established.
And they continued to help us for a while.
What we found, you know, there came a time
when there work was essentially done.
We continued to work with, we continued
to work toward building relationships
with the city government, the county government,
we kind of continued with the State Preservation Office,
so all this took some time.
And what I would, what I recall of that, because that is
when we did our initial application for funding
from the Network to Freedom, we looked pretty hard
at identifying people in our community
who weren't necessarily part of our group,
but some in your group who we thought could do the best job
of getting in touch with what we thought we needed.
Because they were, that wasn't something we had a lot
of in our group.
We weren't well connected.
So, I think that's, you know, looking back,
I think that's a pretty good strategy for us,
and might be applicable to others, is to look around.
If you don't have the resources in your organization
to make the best approaches for community support,
which is important to funding and everything else,
don't be afraid to ask.
We asked, and it worked.
The building, one of the most important things,
and what most interested pretty much everybody is its connection
with the Underground Railroad.
We did not know at first that it was in history written
about as the terminus
of an important trail known as the Lane Trail.
The Lane Trail was established as a free trade route.
And by 1857, it was being used
for people escaping slavery northward to freedom.
And that started in, at Constitution Hall.
Well, you know, that was something that really helped,
so identifying themes and material that we weren't aware
of at first, and some people didn't think, well,
that wouldn't be very interesting
to the people we needed to connect with.
We thought pretty much from the first that we needed to connect
with it as the, for its history, as the location
of the free state government that played a role
in establishing Kansas as a free state.
So, I don't want to go on too long here.
But my, you know, in summary,
I would say make connections before you get too far
into your grant application process,
see if there's anyone you can make connections
with who might help fill out your understanding
of the community participation in the grant application.
What else here?
Excuse me while I look at my notes.
You know, and don't be afraid too to ask for leadership.
We had, we were fortunate
to have some community leaders interested in the project
who helped found the organization.
But neither did they have all of what we thought it would take.
So, we approached others to help with leadership.
Well, thank you, and I guess we're going
to come back for questions.
>> Yes. Thank you so much, Chris.
We do have some questions of Constitution Hall.
Would you like me to share it with the audience?
>> Oh, please do.
>> Okay, sounds great.
>> Yep, that's what it looked like.
That's the picture you picture you saw on the left,
on the right was part of the missing wall that had collapsed
in a storm, and, oh, thank you, this gets into some
of the grant work that has been accomplished
with temperature freedom assistance,
and other assistance too.
But that, on the right you're looking
at the restored elevation of the building, you know,
seen in the picture previous where the wall was
down to the right side of the building.
On the left in the earlier picture, you saw an addition,
a later addition to the building.
We were able to remove that.
We worked with the Kansas Historical Society.
Well, the [inaudible] Preservation Office, you know,
with the large context of things.
We work with them to obtain its removal,
remember all the administrative reasons why we had to do that.
But that was, that was a group,
that was an organization we had to work with.
And then recently in 2021, we applied for and obtained a grant
from the Network to Freedom Service
to help fund the windows you see on the facade,
including the one that's kind of left to the facade.
Those are replicated windows, which we, again, gained support
from the, with the Network
to Freedom staff assistance, direct assistance.
They were so willing, so helpful.
And working with the Kansas Preservation Office to verify
that the materials we had that would, you know,
demonstrated what the facade looked
like originally was sufficient to proceed.
So, well, thank you for showing those.
And I know Larry has, Larry's been waiting here.
>> That's right, that's fine, that's great.
>> Yes. So, now we're going to move over to Ton Farm.
Today we have Larry McClellan
and Tom Shepherd representing Ton Farm.
We're looking forward to hearing about it.
>> Okay, well I think one of the things that's interesting
about today is that what Dawn talked about
and what Chris talked about are rather different kinds
of things.
And ours is rather, rather different from that too.
The Ton Farm is a historic site
that is located south of Chicago.
And what I'm going to do is talk a bit about the site
and about the use of the grant.
And then my colleague, Tom Shepherd, who is with us,
can be talking a bit, will talk a bit about our organization
and cover some of our process.
And, oh, Tom is up there with [inaudible].
Okay, great, great.
Okay, so I'm going to try, Venus, to do a screen share.
And, please, somebody tell me if this works, okay?
>> It worked.
We can see.
>> Okay, okay.
This, you can all see this?
And, actually, can you see my, can you see my, well,
I'm not going to use my cursor, okay, first of all,
just to understand the context, that a significant amount
of activity came up the Mississippi River Valley,
and from the Western territories.
And Chicago was both a destination, also a sanctuary,
but also particularly after 1850 was a point to get from Chicago
to Detroit and freedom in Canada.
And our research shows that there were 6
to 10,000 Freedom Seekers came into Illinois
in the decades before the Civil War.
And the 3,000 to 4,500 in that period came through Chicago
and the Chicago region.
And in the 1830s, 40s, and 50s, Chicago was about the size
of what is now downtown Chicago.
And can you see my cursor moving around or not?
>> Yes.
>> Oh, okay, you can.
Okay, good.
So, all of, basically all of what you see on the screen,
about half of this is the current City of Chicago,
but Chicago before the Civil War was located at, was the site
of what is now the downtown area of Chicago.
And Freedom Seekers coming up into Chicago to get onto Freedom
in Canada, they had to follow the historic Chicago
to Detroit road, which went directly south from Chicago
and around the bottom of Lake Michigan.
And south of the City of Chicago, about 15 miles,
there were two significant areas of Dutch settlement.
All kinds of folks came and settled in the Chicago region.
But starting in the late 1840s, Dutch settlers came,
and the top blue circle is what we know today
as the neighborhood Chicago of Roseland.
And the bottom blue circle is today the village
of South Holland.
The name is a giveaway.
It was a settlement of Dutch folks.
And as people, my research suggests that 500
to 800 Freedom Seekers traveled over land from after arriving
in Chicago, traveled over land, following this historic Chicago
to Detroit road to get around the bottom of Lake Michigan
and get out of Detroit and Freedom in Canada.
And one of the central issues was that they had
to cross what we call the Little Calumet River
at the Indiana Avenue Bridge.
And so we have a, if you will, kind of choke point,
where we know that literally hundreds of folks on their way
to Freedom went across this one precise bridge point.
And just a few blocks from that was the farm of a family,
the family of Jan and Aagje Ton, among these Dutch settlers.
And among the Dutch settlers, two of them, Cornelis
and his wife Marjay [phonetic] Kuyper, and Jan and Aagje Ton,
you see on the right, they were among the few Dutch families
that spoke English.
And they had all come out of pretty bad political
and religious situations in Holland.
And when they arrived, particularly the Kupers
and the Tons, ended up responding to assistance,
or needs for help from Freedom Seekers
that were traveling through.
And we've got an interesting cycle of stories
of these two families.
And the importance of the Ton Farm, which was located
on the banks of Little Calumet River.
They built, the Tons built a rather extensive farm
and outbuildings.
And we have these, we have, we've got this picture
of the, of the original farm.
Unfortunately, none of the buildings are there.
And so this becomes very important in terms
of how have we then dealt with this?
And one of the things that we knew was very important was
that we needed somehow to get the signage up so
that people could recognize this as an important historic site
where a number of Freedom Seekers came through.
And, interestingly, if, let me go back to my, back to my map
for a second, in the area directly above the Ton Farm,
below Lake Calumet, and above the location of the Ton Farm,
is an area of Chicago that has been historically ignored.
It is also the location of historic,
a major low income housing area called Altgeld Gardens
Murray Homes.
And next to it is a small African American neighborhood
called Golden Gate.
It really is a very isolated part of the city.
And believe it or not, at the Ton Farm,
there are still dirt roads.
This is inside the City of Chicago, the only place
in Chicago that still has dirt streets.
It is that, been that ignored.
And, however, at the middle of the 19th century,
there were a number of these Dutch families that were living
up and down the [inaudible] Trail.
And so as we started working at the location
of the Ton Farm site along the,
the Little Calumet River, it was very clear.
First of all, the Little Calumet River has become part
of what is called the Cal Sag Channel.
It's the international large canal system
that connects the lake, the Great Lakes
with the Mississippi River Valley.
And so what was once the Little Calumet River is now part
of this large system.
In the 1950s, at this particular site, on the Ton Farm,
an African American family opened the first marina
for people of color.
Of course, African American [inaudible] boats were
experiencing discrimination at all
of the marinas around Chicago.
And so this one family decided they were going to open
up a marina that would serve black families.
And this operated from the 1950s,
and until about 20 years ago it had fallen
in some great disrepair.
A fellow named Ronald Gaines and his family bought the marina,
and they are in the process of renovating it.
And I got to know Ron very well about four or five years ago,
and we discovered that our historic Ton Farm site
from the Underground Railroad is on the location
of the historic black marina, Chicago's finest marina.
And as we worked on this with Ron, we have been involved
with all kinds of people across the communities.
And Tom will tell you a little bit about organizing and so on.
But we recognize that a key issue was to be able
to make this a visible place.
And how do you make it visible?
You do it with signage, historical signage.
In the state of Illinois,
the cost of an official state historic marker is about $7,000
to get the marker and to have it installed.
And this is a program run
by the Illinois State Historical Society.
And we felt that on this site we could get one
of those historic markers, it could really help
to identify it as a place.
And the marker would become, if you will, the destination,
since there weren't the buildings.
And working very closely with Ron Gaines,
we worked with the state, and we made application to the Network
to Freedom, because we're in such an ignored area of Chicago,
and there are no resources.
There are very, very limited resources.
There are no stores, there are no real economic drivers here.
And that in many places, the people you would go to,
the various organizations, institutions, et cetera,
to get signage put up, we simply didn't have.
And so we knew that a critical issue for us,
which we'd never get funded for, was the signage.
Therefore, we went to the Network to Freedom and asked
for that signage to locate it here at the,
at the Chicago's finest marina.
We ended up getting that, we're also going
to be putting some signs in the picture on the right,
we're going to be putting a big sign up as part
of the funded project, as part of the grant,
so that people traveling on the river can know about this
as an Underground Railroad site.
But on the landward side, we got this official state marker,
and we had last year a huge celebration.
We had over 150 people there.
And here, honoring the marker, on the left,
that is our Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton.
Next to her is Ron Gaines, the owner of the, of the property.
Looking at the sign is Congressman Robin Kelly.
Next to her is Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller.
Behind them is the Chief Counsel General for the Kingdom
of the Netherlands in Chicago.
And remember that this is a Dutch settlement
related activity.
And then to the right is Tom Shepherd.
And so what we felt, and I think this is the problem that comes
with all of us, how do you identify those key things
that you want to search for funding?
And we were very clear about the fact that we need to have,
we needed to have the signs.
This sign now for our tourists has become a real
destination point.
So, instead of just bringing people to the land
and telling stories, we can bring them to the land,
the sites, tell them stories about Freedom Seekers,
and also we have a destination point, which is,
in fact, the historic marker.
And we do tours along, along the way.
So, that, that was the particular use we made
of the Network to Freedom funding.
And because we saw that as a really pressing need.
And now Tom, if you could come in and tell them a bit
about our project and about some of our partners
and how we put this together.
Tom?
>> Well, first, let me check and see if I have audio capability.
>> We hear you.
You're fine.
>> Great, okay.
>> We see you.
>> It took a while to get logged on.
I was having trouble.
And I finally disconnected my Zoom and then re, put a new Zoom
on my telephone, so I'm operating from my telephone.
Well, I never thought we would get this far, Larry,
in the beginning, when we embarked on trying to showcase
and bring to the general community the fascinating story
of the Ton Farm and the Dutch settlers and the Freedom Seekers
that came through this area.
We were just a group of, oh, it's going back 20 years now,
a group of local historians and neighborhood folks and a couple
of academics who knew about this amazing history without the,
well, we didn't endeavor at that time to be
on the National Park Service Network to Freedom.
I wasn't even aware of what that was at the time.
But as we began to bring people together
and conduct neighborhood meetings and teach people
of this fascinating history that was, had occurred right here,
right in our backyards, it began to gather steam, and more
and more people began to join, and more and more people began
to show an interest in what we had.
What developed was a few things of note.
One thing is that the Ton Farm is adjoining one
of the Cook County Forest Preserve areas.
And the Cook County Forest Preserve observed what we were
doing, and they have been employing us now
for the fourth year, and doing, conducting tours out here,
and bringing people, and they found it for us, bringing people
out to the site, and providing school buses to take them
to a couple of other local landmarks
that denote the movement
of the Freedom Seekers through the area.
So, that, that really brought us a lot of wonderful notoriety.
And hundreds and hundreds of people that we've been able
to bring through over the past few years.
Meanwhile, we've began to get many requests
from local historical societies and schools and institutions
and church groups and so forth
to bring together and do presentations.
Larry keeps a very busy schedule,
especially around Black History Month and Juneteenth,
in describing and the great presentation
that he puts the PowerPoints that he put together,
we would keep a real busy schedule of doing those things.
As he noted, we now had the historical marker,
so we have something there
that folks can see and learn more about.
And when they do come out for the tours, we take them
for what we call hiking on the Freedom Trail.
As Larry mentioned about the remoteness of this area
and still probably the most forlorn streets in the City
of Chicago, if you want to call them streets,
for our purpose they serve very well,
because it really gives folks a sense
of what things may have been
like along the Little Calumet River
where the Ton Farm was located, as we walk and talk
and do our walking presentations out in the woods,
and we can describe the journey of the Freedom Seekers.
And it's really been amazing.
Getting the signage has been, it's about to be installed
in the next month or two.
That's going to really be a boon to us.
And in addition, and I'm not sure if you covered that, Larry,
but with the interest of the Dutch Council that we've had,
the council general, and the entire staff
of the downtown consulate come out for a tour and a hike.
And they were amazed at the history here, because, well,
frankly they didn't know much about this.
And since they have come out, we've been in contact
with the Dutch government.
And it looks like they are interested
in bringing some signage out as well
to augment what we're putting in, with the blessing
of the Network to Freedom, and the grant
from the Network to Freedom.
So, we're going to have that too hopefully.
And it's been extraordinary.
Last year, we became a 501(c)(3) organization,
which will give us a better reach
for other grants and things.
And we're looking at doing a number
of things on the property.
Ron Gaines, who's the owner
of the marina that's there right now, wants to get a type
of replica building on the property.
So, we're looking at that.
And what this, and we have an affiliation now
with the Illinois State University of Illinois Extension
to do some gardening and made a planting out there.
And what this has also broadened is an interest
in what Larry referred to as the Chicago to Detroit Trail.
And people all along the way, and we've done presentations
from Chicago into across the southern suburbs of Chicago
and into Northwest Indiana, this has really aroused an interest
from other historical societies and other folks along the way
who want to document and learn more,
teach more about the movement of Freedom Seekers that came
from south, down south, and found their way to Chicago,
but then had to get around the bottom of Lake Michigan
where we're at, and find their way
up into Canada to the Freedom.
So, this has really broadened, it's getting more
and more exciting, and more
and more people are becoming involved with us.
But our focal point at this point has been the Ton F arm.
And we're very proud of what we've accomplished thus far.
And very grateful to the Network to Freedom for the grant
that allowed us to get the signage
that will be coming soon.
>> Thank you so much, Tom and Larry, for giving us some
in depth understanding about your site, and how you're going
to utilize the grants.
And thank you also to all our panelists really for talking
about your project execution.
Now we're going to go into more
so the Q&A aspect of the program.
So, I just want to say to all of the attendees,
feel free to drop your questions in the Q&A box.
We already have some questions that we could start asking now.
But, so let's go ahead and start with the first question.
And I think you, most of you have addressed this already
within your presentation.
But if you didn't get a chance, I just want to start with that.
So, how did you go about seeking support financially,
or within your community?
>> In what kind of order should we go in?
Dawn, why don't you, why don't we just do it Dawn,
Chris, and us?
>> Perfect.
>> Sure. Yeah, and so, you know, for us, so I didn't touch on it,
it was pretty similar to what you've all described so far.
You know, it's a little different
because I already work for, you know, the federal government,
you know, what we have to do is slightly different, because,
you know, we're not applying for these grants ourselves.
Right? We have partners, so nonprofit partners,
who are pursuing the grant.
We also have, you know, the folks who are helping us
to implement those grants.
And so for us it was a lot of, as you've already mentioned,
you know, that community support.
You know, we had support
from the local African American community, we have support
from folks who actually worked previously, you know,
with tribal nations, and had done a lot of the research,
and had pulled stuff together.
So, that was really great
to have a really interested active community of folks.
But, you know, that didn't just, you know,
spring up out of nowhere, right?
You've really got to seek those connections.
You've got to make those connections
and cultivate those relationships to do that.
And so we had a really active, motivated, nonprofit partner,
who pursued this grant, you know, with our assistance, and,
you know, implemented that as well.
But I can't, you know, overstate the fact that really having
that descendent engagement is huge.
And I would almost say that this grant itself really led us
on a father toward making that a snowball.
So, you know, I hear you guys talk about reaching
out to the Dutch government.
Well, for us, it was those folks who had been, you know,
transported by the British to Trinidad in 1815, you know,
we have now connected with those modern day descendants.
And they're a huge part of everything that we do.
And we're able to share with them the work that we did
through this grant, you know, some of that archeology work,
because there's not been any archeology done since or before,
until 1960 was the last time.
So, very interested in learning their heritage.
So, that's really how we kind of built that momentum
and built that support.
And it continues to keep going, because we keep, like I said,
feeding those relationships.
I'll pass the baton.
>> Well, as you all mentioned, reaching out to the community,
and I mean we reached out to anyone and everyone,
because you never know, you never know who's going
to know somebody you should also reach out to.
So, we just did it.
Okay, so that's established.
What's really important is to document what you've done.
And a real easy way to do this is to ask
for a simple letter of, you know, hey,
this sounds like a good project, or, you know, from, well,
we went to churches, we went to educational groups,
but I'm going to take a more obvious example of the director
of the local tourism agency.
I said, well, would you, would you write a letter, you know,
how you see this department?
He said, most everybody saw some way
that this would be beneficial to the community.
So, and they did.
And then we kept all that.
Sometimes we didn't use it for years.
But when you have a grant process come up, that's,
you know, a letter of support,
evidence of community support, you know, is support.
So, in a letter, you'd have that documented.
Passing the baton.
>> Okay, I guess I would kind of concur
with the things that have been said.
I would add one or two, one or two points.
One is that Tom and I have both been involved
in civil rights things forever and ever.
And, you know, I think that we try
to be extraordinarily sensitive to the fact
that because the Ton Farm is located
in a predominantly African American environment next
to this housing area for families with limited resources,
that we have been very deliberate about making sure
that all of our activities have been racially diverse,
and that we have had at informal levels and now
at the formal level with our organization,
we are very conscious and deliberate about the fact
that making sure that we have everything
which we do is racially diverse.
And we are now training tour guides,
and we are looking particularly
for young African American students to help us with that.
And the response we've gotten
from people has been really terrific across the board.
And I think that a lot of folks recognize
that we are really attempting
to always have a racially diverse environment.
I think that's part of the building process that has,
that has been very important to us.
And it's particularly tricky in an environment
at this far southern edge of Chicago
with very limited resources.
We have a number of very enthusiastic supporters.
But almost none of us have any resources.
And so we are kind of in that, you know, in that together.
We operate through a thing called the and look on Facebook.
Tom runs a Facebook page,
The Little Calumet River Underground Railroad Project.
And Tom, why don't you talk a bit about our connections
through the Facebook and some of that?
>> Yeah, I would like to, there was a question there
from Madeline, I think Madeline Jackson maybe,
and she asked about, if we are spurring any kind
of economic development of the community from our efforts.
This area, I have to go back to what Larry said earlier,
and what I also agreed with, is that the streets here are,
in this part of town, are very lacking,
there are a few sidewalks.
If we dropped folks into this area, they would think
that they're in the deep rural south, along the river there.
But just recently, and I like to try to take some
of the credit for, from our organization, and the attention
that we brought to the area, the City of Chicago Cultural Affairs
and Special Events has just granted $250,000
to the adjoining communities to begin to make improvements
in the area, and to do artwork.
There's a nearby viaduct that they're planning to have murals
that depict the Freedom Seekers.
So, that's been an infusion there.
There has been new interest.
Last Juneteenth, last year, our mayor,
Lori Lightfoot, came out to the site.
And she dedicated that they will begin
to make street improvements in the area.
As Larry pointed out, there are no stores and commercial type
of places in the area.
However, it was just released within the last month or so
that a new supermarket will be built,
just maybe about a quarter mile, half a mile away.
So, there are things happening.
And not that we can say
that we've spurred all the development and all
of these things, but credit think
that we might have had a hand in it.
These are partners of ours that we've been working
with at Altgeld Gardens that were successful
at getting the grant, and the Golden Gate community.
So, finally things are happening there.
And Ronald Gaines is making the improvements at his marina.
And has plans for renovation.
And in the future, he is looking
to have a small museum on the property.
So, that addresses that, I think,
that it's coming in small increments.
Yeah.
>> Thank you.
So, essentially we want to move over.
Thank you for answering those questions.
We have a lot of questions in the chat.
And we only have about like five, six minutes left.
So, I want to try to ask as many as I can.
So, there are two questions in the chat that I want to combine.
One of them is what is the most important documentation needed
to submit a grant?
And, you know, regional coordinators,
feel free to jump in.
And so is it required that the project already be in process?
And then the second question to that is how does one discover
and document or prove that local suspecting Underground Railroad
sites are legit?
So, it's all about documentation.
What do you find important?
And how did you go about navigating maybe an obscure site
that there may not be a lot of documentation on?
>> Well, let me real quickly respond
in terms of the research.
It is really hard work.
There is the kind of common thought is, well, gee,
the Underground Railroad was illegal activity,
and the movement of Freedom Seekers was all illegal,
and so there's nothing to be learned.
Our experience, at least in Illinois,
is that there is a tremendous amount of resource of material
that can be found, but you have to dig and dig and dig and dig.
And through newspapers, through family papers, and other places.
And I think that may be true across the board,
that there are resources to be found.
But it takes, it does take a lot of work.
>> I agree.
Of course, you know, the research organizations like,
you know, from local to state level, are projects
in a capital city where the state historical site is
located, and we went to this research library,
as you just said, Larry, that doesn't necessarily help you,
because, well, for a lot of reasons, but one of them is
that a lot of sources are not considered primary evidence.
Well, that's very useful to see those secondary resources,
because lo and behold, in those secondary resources,
we found names of primary people.
Well, we went to that file, we weren't able
to use necessarily the clipping that we found
in the quote clippings files of our county,
which is just kind of a mess.
But, you know, we were able
to identify names from those clippings.
And because of, you know, the times, whatever,
they had some writings.
There were a number of people had some writings, you know,
that serve as primary evidence.
So, you just never know.
>> Thank you.
Diane, was there something you wanted to add to that question?
I don't know if I saw you [inaudible].
>> Yeah, I was just going to add that I would encourage anyone
on the call that wants to know about how
to document Underground Railroad sites to connect
with your regional coordinator.
I think Venus can put a slide up that has everyone's name.
And all of our contact information is on our website,
which is very simple; nps.gov/ugrr.
I did see a question about whether there,
one could submit a proposal to write a Network
to Freedom application.
And we are doing that again this year.
We don't have a particular dollar amount cap on those.
We decided that it would work best
if people developed a research plan and a proposal
for what they would need to do those applications.
So, I also encourage people to work, reach out to Venus,
and she can help you talk through a project.
She is also connect you with the regional coordinator.
So, please just call us.
We'd love to talk to you and see how we can help further your
projects along.
>> Thank you so much, Diane.
So, at the end of this, I will definitely share
with you all a slide that has our links to the application,
links to our website, and some contact information
for all the regional coordinators.
We're going to move on to one last question it looks like.
And so, well, actually, before you go, Diane,
there's a question about scope of projects.
So, what type of activities,
besides physical restorations, are permissible?
And is there room for community education?
I just didn't know if you wanted to address that before you went.
>> Sure. So, yeah, we will fund bricks and mortar preservation.
We will also fund research and developing interpretive signage.
We have funded exhibit work.
We have funded occasionally some community symposia
to bring the word to the community.
We've funded a variety of different types of projects.
On our website, you can see more about what we have funded.
But, again, I would also encourage you to give us a call
if you're not sure about a project you're thinking about.
Really, the best thing is to talk
with your regional coordinator, talk with Venus,
and we can help you sort of figure out how
to reach your goals by crafting a grant project
that would be feasible and eligible and would, you know,
help move your process along.
>> Thank you for that.
We're going to go into our last, our very last question.
I did see a question here from Leah Jackson about diversity.
So, I'm not sure if you all have any experience in promoting
or encouraging diversity at your projects and at your sites.
I figure it was a pretty important thing to address.
So, how did you go about sort of encouraging or promoting
or even just seeking to ensure that there was diversity
at your projects or at your sites?
>> I'd like to jump in on this one,
because this has been hugely important for us
at the U.S. Forest Service, because, you know,
I'm just the shepherd, you know, of this site.
The National Forest in Florida manages a million acres,
and probably over 10,000 archeological sites in there.
So, this is our legally most important, like I said,
the one that I feel most responsible
for conveying all the threads of history.
And, you know, it's a real question,
when I got here, how do you start?
And to be honest, I started with a local community.
You know, we have a museum that serves as kind
of a de facto African American history museum.
And the people I met there have been great.
And I continue to grow that network, you know, through them.
But we've also reached out into the academic community,
the University of Florida, Florida State University.
And then the associated groups, right?
So, there's a society for black archaeologists,
because there simply just are not enough people of color
in these fields, archeology in particular.
And so it really is a matter of going to look for people
who can help you, you know, do your work.
And then obviously, like I said, you know,
the actual descendants, you know,
the people who are descended from the Maroons
who had served at our fort.
And just making sure that we are able to get them to the table.
You know, however people want to participate, you know,
we really want to meet them where they are.
But, like I said, this isn't my story.
This is something that I'm really trying to lift
up for everybody for who this story is really important
and is a part of their history.
So, I really saw, I saw that in the chat,
and I really appreciated that, because I think that needs
to be important to every single person who manages a site
on the Network to Freedom.
You know, this is, this is a really big part of history.
And for some people, it's a very, very close history.
>> I've talked a bit earlier about our experience
and intentionality in regards to diversity.
And I think part of what our lived experience is is
that because of the area that we're working,
we naturally are engaged with a large number
of predominantly black organizations,
and with black educators.
And our experience has been again and again
and again we didn't know this happened here.
And that there has been just a terrific response on the part
of black educators in our area, and a number
of the predominantly black organizations
that the leadership very quickly affirms the fact
that this is very important history for all of us.
But particularly for reframing the conversation,
and seeing the remarkable power and remarkable stories
in the Freedom Seekers.
And I think that we all have to be really deliberate about that.
But in a way, part of the, I don't know, kind of the,
it's a bit easier for us because we're in an environment both
at the southern edge of the city,
and also in the suburbs immediately adjacent to Chicago,
that we have significant African American populations.
And, therefore, there's significant organizational base
and an educator base that we're able to engage with us.
>> Thank you all so much.
I'm really happy to hear about all the efforts taking place,
and the intention behind it.
And that was our last question.
So, thank you so much for being open
to answering some questions.
And we have a lot of great attendees here.
So, if you want to share your contact information,
I'm sure they would love to connect with you.
Right now, I'm just going to go ahead and send
in the main chat our link to the applications for 2023.
I'm also going to share with you a link to our website.
And so feel free to contact us for any questions.
The next slide I'm going to share with you is just a page
with our contact informations.
So, let me go ahead and do that.
Sorry about all this.
>> A nice summary.
>> Yeah, it is a nice summary.
Right? So, you get to see everything
that took place today.
So, here is all our contact, all the regional coordinators,
myself, Winnie and Stephen Agricola, he's not here today,
but he's our visual information specialist.
My phone number is right here.
So, feel free to contact me, call me.
And I'll get you connected with the regional coordinator
if you don't have their contact.
And so for the last part of our program today, like I said,
these are all our contacts, but feel free to reach out.
Does anyone have any questions left?
I think we got to most of our questions.
But to the panelists, thank you so much for being here today.
And I just wanted to leave the floor open.
Do you have any other last advice you'd like to share?
>> Well, actually, I was thinking of one thing
when Diane Miller was talking, and that is,
at least my lived experience with doing grants is that a lot
of times you're not sure that you can approach people.
And I just want to underscore what Diane shared with us,
that it's our experience in developing this grant
and in doing our applications for the Network to Freedom
and all that is that Diane and the staff are really,
really open to being helpful.
And so just to reinforce, you know, what she said, the,
you know, you can get kind
of uptight putting a grant together.
But, you know, reach out to them and talk about it.
And that really can help.
It certainly has helped us a lot.
>> And I think just to share something quick too,
I think my words of advice would be, you know,
the history is fascinating.
It's the reason we're here.
It's the reason we're talking.
But at the end of the day, like I said,
this is a story about people.
And whenever I'm writing about, you know, my sites, and,
you know, talking about them, I really think,
and this is important for the grants as well,
make it about the people.
You know, this is the story that you're telling.
And this is what you're looking for this [inaudible] to do
so then you can tell the story of these people.
And, you know, that means the people of the past as well as,
you know, like we said, framing that perspective.
You could tell a story in 10 different ways,
but tell it in a way that, you know, the people who are,
you know, descendent, the people who the story really matters to,
what's important to them, and convey that.
So, for me, just keep it focused on those folks.
>> Amen.
>> I do want to just say that if there are questions in the chat
that did not get answered, the staff will go back
through everything, and we'll send you out an e mail
to answer any question that didn't, didn't get covered.
>> Thank you, Diane.
And I also dropped my e mail in the chat if anyone wants
to just directly e mail me.
Like we said, we're always open.
Thank you, again, to Larry, Tom, Dawn, Chris, for being here
with us and sharing so much knowledge.
We really appreciate it.
>> Thank you so much.
>> Thank you.
>> Bye bye.
>> Thank you.
>> All right, have a good day, everyone.
>> You too.
>> Bye bye.
>> Thank you.
>> We'll be in touch, Venus.
Bye bye.
>> Sounds good.
Have a good day.
>> Hey, Venus, can you make sure that we get all the questions
down that were in the QA or the chat?
>> Definitely.
I'm going to copy them all right now.
>> Okay. Great.
Thank you.
Because I think last time, or one time, once it ended,
we couldn't get back to it.
So, I know there were a few very specific ones.
>> That's true.
Yeah, I'll make sure to copy those.
How did it go for you?
>> I thought it was really well, went well.
What do you think?
>> I think it went well.
We had a good turnout of people.
I was so excited.
Did you see that?
>> Yeah, I did.
That was great.
I thought it was a real interesting discussion.
And I actually feel like I got some insights from it.
>> Yeah, definitely.
I tried to pivot to more so what the audience were looking for.
But I think it went really well.
>> Yeah.
>> But, okay, I will get in touch with you later.
I'm going to make sure I copy and paste those questions
and put them in some form of document for us.
>> Okay. I'm going to drop out.
I've got to go to my next call.
>> Sounds good.
Have a good day.
>> You too.