Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, one of more than 560 national wildlife refuges, provides critical habitat for native plants and wildlife. The 17 acres for the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park are surrounded by the 29,000-acre refuge, the largest within the Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Established in 1933 to protect migratory birds, it also preserves a landscape reminiscent of Harriet Tubman's time. Because few original structures or architectural remains survive, the landscape offers the best connection to what Tubman witnessed and experienced there. The refuge remains a powerful visual reminder of the environment that shaped her, the land she lived in, worked upon, escaped through, worshipped in, and returned to in order to help others seek freedom.

Maryland · United States