{"id":3720,"slug":"conns-ferry-virginia","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Conn's Ferry opened on the Potomac in the 1790s, Hugh Conn's boat crossing between the Loudoun shore and Maryland at the bend where Riverbend Park now keeps a boat ramp. Its most famous passenger came in late August 1814: James Madison, fleeing Washington ahead of the British, alighted here in the dark weeks of a presidency nearly ended in a single night. That crossing is remembered. The other one took longer to surface."]},{"heading":"The second escape","paragraphs":["Working the Loudoun County courthouse records, preservationist Debbie Robison found Ellick — one of eleven people enslaved by the Conn family, a brick mason listed in the 1809 estate inventory as the most valuable of them. In 1817, hired out in Leesburg, he was convicted of breaking into a store, whipped, and burned on the hand. Released to walk home, he ran instead. Recaptured two months later, he sat handcuffed on the Conn porch while Jesse Conn was sent for — and at sunset he went over the hill again. The family advertised thirty dollars for him in the National Intelligencer that August; he was never seen again, rumored in Alexandria, gone from the record entirely.","The Park Service listed the landing on the Network to Freedom in 2011. The file's entry is a stretch of riverbank where two escapes share one water: a president running to save his government, and a man running to save himself."]}],"name":"Conn’s Ferry","aliases":["Conn's Ferry"],"type":"HISTORIC_SITE","type_label":"Historic Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD_HISTORY","AFRICAN_AMERICAN_HISTORY","MARITIME","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD"],"groups":["dark-history","historic-sites"],"desc":"The ferry—where the fugitives crossed the Potomac.","full_desc":"Conn’s Ferry is a historic site in Leesburg, Virginia, an NPS Network to Freedom. The ferry—where the fugitives crossed the Potomac. The archive files it under 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":"Leesburg","county":null,"state":"Virginia","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":39.106396,"lon":-77.559195,"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 3; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":62.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.35,"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. Conn’s Ferry's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. Sources including 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01' carry the record. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.","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":"Conn’s Ferry 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 record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. The date is part of the site's documented spine.","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 ferry’s UGRR role is documented. Conn’s Ferry's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' documents the entry. 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}}],"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":null,"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}