{"id":3699,"slug":"chesapeake-and-ohio-canal-potomac-maryland","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was finished in 1850 — the 184-mile waterway from Georgetown to Cumberland, the canal that carried coal and goods beside the Potomac, its towpath and locks surviving as the park's preserved corridor.","The file's documented spine is the canal's double role: a working waterway that was also a route north — the Network to Freedom listing marking the canal's place in the freedom struggle, the towpath a documented path for the escaping."]},{"heading":"The towpath's register","paragraphs":["The file's legend layer is empty — the canal's claim is its documented use: a waterway whose towpath the escaping followed, the locks and lockhouses of the working canal doubling as the freedom road's stations.","The canal's 184 miles are the file's register — a corridor that moved coal north and people to freedom, the preserved waterway holding both industries' traces."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The C&O is the archive's canal-corridor file — an 1850 waterway whose towpath served the freedom road, a Network to Freedom site needing no ghosts. The documented canal is the record.","A canal that carried commerce and escapees keeps both traces — the file's suggestion being that the towpath's history runs in both directions."]}],"name":"Chesapeake and Ohio Canal","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_SITE","type_label":"Historic Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD_HISTORY","AFRICAN_AMERICAN_HISTORY","HISTORIC_SITE","MARITIME","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD","CANAL"],"groups":["dark-history","historic-sites"],"desc":"The canal—where the Potomac towpath ran.","full_desc":"A historic site in Potomac, Maryland, an NPS Network to Freedom, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal is filed here for what the record attaches to it. The canal—where the Potomac towpath ran. The archive files it under Underground Railroad history, the Underground Railroad and African American history. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Potomac","county":null,"state":"Maryland","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":39.013332,"lon":-77.193579,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":"NPS Network to Freedom","current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"UGRR enrichment wave 1; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":67.9,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":null,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[],"history":[{"description":"NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. 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 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. The record keeps it — history, not lore.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"Chesapeake and Ohio Canal 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 record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"The 1850 canal is documented. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Historic site; verify hours and access with the managing agency before visiting; check nps.gov for current hours and alerts.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Underground Railroad","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Chesapeake and Ohio Canal","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_and_Ohio_Canal","desc":"Canal in Washington, D.C., and Maryland","extract":"The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the Grand Old Ditch, operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Patowmack Canal, which shut down completely in 1828, and could operate during months in which the water level was too low for the former canal. The canal's principal cargo was coal from the Allegheny Mountains.\nConstruction began in 1828 on the 184.5-mile (296.9 km) canal and ended in 1850 with the completion of a 50-mile (80 km) stretch to Cumberland, although the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had already reached Cumberland in 1842. The canal had an elevation change of ","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/All_aboard_the_Charles_F_Mercer.jpg/960px-All_aboard_the_Charles_F_Mercer.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":89},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}