Black Rock Ferry (Broderick Park)
A historic site in Buffalo, New York, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing, Black Rock Ferry (Broderick Park) is filed here for what the record attaches to it. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. It sits in the archive under dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. The site is open to visitors.
NPS public listing access field: Yes. This is a listing snapshot; current arrangements still require confirmation.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is Black Rock Ferry (Broderick Park) haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
The last leg of some Underground Railroad journeys was a ferry ride. At the foot of Ferry Street in Buffalo — today's Broderick Park — the Black Rock Ferry ran across the Niagara River to Fort Erie, Ontario: a crossing of minutes that put enslaved fugitives onto Canadian ground, beyond the reach of every fugitive slave law the United States could write. Buffalo was a terminus city; routes converged on this bank from across the North.
The ferry had run since the early nineteenth century, an ordinary commercial crossing — which was the point. A fugitive who reached the dock looked like every other passenger until the boat tied up on the far side.
The last hundred yards
The park's file is the crossing itself, documented on the National Park Service's Network to Freedom — a piece of riverbank where the border did the work a border was supposed to do, the final stretch of routes that began hundreds of miles south. Freedom seekers are recorded crossing at Black Rock through the decades before the Civil War; the most famous crossings of the era, including Harriet Tubman's, ended on the same river.
The ferry is long gone. The park remains — a green strip on the Niagara within sight of the Canadian shore it once ferried people toward. The file keeps the crossing, which is the entire point of the place.
Two accounts on file
NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.
The Buffalo ferry—where the fugitives crossed to Canada.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing
NPS Network to Freedom
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 20NY01, source row 392. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.
UGRR enrichment wave 2; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Documented history
NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceBlack Rock Ferry (Broderick Park) is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. The detail is preserved in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceThe ferry’s UGRR role is documented. Black Rock Ferry (Broderick Park)'s past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.
Verified historyNational Park Service
Sources on file
- 01Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01National Park Service · government · A1
- 02NPS Network to Freedom listingNational Park Service · government · A1
- 03Underground RailroadWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 20NY01, source row 392. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.