{"id":3698,"slug":"chesapeake-delaware-canal-chesapeake-city-maryland","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal opened in 1829 — the fourteen-mile ditch connecting two bays that turned a three-hundred-mile voyage into a shortcut, its locks and banks the engineering of a young nation moving goods between its two greatest estuaries.","The file's documented spine is the canal's Underground Railroad listing: the NPS Network to Freedom recognizes the waterway's role in freedom-seeking — the canal's towpaths and banks being the route enslaved people used to reach free soil, the engineered waterway doubling as a freedom corridor."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The C&D Canal is the archive's freedom-corridor file — an 1829 waterway that moved commerce and freedom-seekers, its Network to Freedom listing being the record's most important register. The file's silence on legend is its care: a canal that carried people toward liberty needs no ghost.","A canal that carried freedom-seekers keeps their passage — the file's suggestion being that the towpaths remember the feet that ran them toward the free states."]}],"name":"Chesapeake & Delaware 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 waterway carried the fugitives.","full_desc":"Chesapeake & Delaware Canal is a historic site in Chesapeake City, Maryland, an NPS Network to Freedom. The canal—where the waterway carried the fugitives. HauntHunt files it with Underground Railroad history, the Underground Railroad and African American history. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Chesapeake City","county":null,"state":"Maryland","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":39.527212,"lon":-75.811653,"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. 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 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 & Delaware Canal is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","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 1829 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. 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}}],"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 & Delaware Canal","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_%26_Delaware_Canal","desc":"United States historic place","extract":"The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal (C&D Canal) is a  14-mile (22.5 km)-long,  450-foot (137.2 m)-wide and  35-foot (10.7 m)-deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay in the states of Delaware and Maryland in the United States.\nIn the mid-17th century, mapmaker Augustine Herman observed that these great bodies of water were separated only by a narrow strip of land. In 1764, a survey of possible water routes across the Delmarva Peninsula was made, but little action followed. The idea was raised again in 1788 by regional business leaders, including famed Philadelphians Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.\nDespite the beginnings of a commercial venture in 1802 coincid","img":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Chesapeake_%26_Delaware_Canal_from_Chesapeake_City.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","score":89,"lat":39.54277778,"lon":-75.72055556},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}