{"id":1120,"slug":"john-brown-farm-new-york","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["John Brown's body lies a-mouldering at North Elba — the small, plain, unpainted farmhouse on the 270 acres he bought in 1849 under the Adirondack peaks, in the Black settlement colony Gerrit Smith's land grants had created. Brown moved there to farm beside the free Black families Smith had enfranchised; it was from this farmhouse that he went to Kansas, and to Harpers Ferry, with the plan to end slavery by armed confrontation.","The raid failed in thirty-six hours — Brown was captured October 18, 1859, tried by Virginia for treason, and hanged December 2. His body came home by his own request and was buried in front of the farmhouse on December 8 — six days after the execution that made him, in the North, a martyr and, in the South, the confirmation of every fear. The song the Union armies marched to put his body in the grave it is actually in: 'John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave.' Most who sang it never knew the grave was a farm plot in the Adirondacks.","In 1899 the remains of several of his Harpers Ferry followers were moved to the small graveyard beside him — the men who died in the engine house buried with the man who led them there. New York took the farm in 1896; it was a shrine from the moment of burial, and it is a National Historic Landmark now — the farmhouse and the graves under the peaks where the man's truth, as the nomination puts it, goes marching on.","The John Brown Farm is the archive's martyr file — the farm the raider bought in a colony founded to free Black voters, where his body came home six days after the hanging, and where his Harpers Ferry dead were gathered to lie beside him in 1899."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The John Brown Farm is the archive's a-mouldering file — the North Elba farm where the Harpers Ferry raider was buried at his own request in December 1859, in the graveyard that later received his followers, on land inside Gerrit Smith's Black settlement colony.","A martyr's farm keeps its gravesite — the file's suggestion being that North Elba's hold is the plainness: the unpainted farmhouse and the small graveyard under the peaks, where the man the war's anthem immortalized actually lies."]}],"name":"John Brown Farm","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_SITE","type_label":"Historic Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD_HISTORY","AFRICAN_AMERICAN_HISTORY","HISTORIC_SITE","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD","CIVIL_RIGHTS"],"groups":["dark-history","historic-sites"],"desc":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","full_desc":"John Brown Farm is a historic site in Lake Placid, New York, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing. 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 — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The site is open to visitors.","address":"115 John Brown Road","city":"Lake Placid","county":"Essex","state":"New York","postal":null,"region":"Northeast","lat":44.28417,"lon":-73.986426,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":"NPS public listing access field: Yes. This is a listing snapshot; current arrangements still require confirmation.","ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 44NY01, source row 688. 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. ","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. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","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":"John Brown Farm is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. John Brown Farm's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. 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'. 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}},{"description":"The 1849 farm and the burial are documented. John Brown Farm'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. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. The record keeps it — history, not lore.","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":[{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","incoming_value":"The Lake Placid farm—where the abolitionist is buried.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"historic_designation","existing_value":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","incoming_value":"NPS Network to Freedom","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 44NY01, source row 688. 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. ","incoming_value":"UGRR enrichment wave 2; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":{"title":"John Brown Farm State Historic Site","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_Farm_State_Historic_Site","desc":"State historic site in New York, United States","extract":"The John Brown Farm State Historic Site includes the home and final resting place of abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859). It is located on John Brown Road in the town of North Elba, 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Lake Placid, New York, where John Brown moved in 1849 to teach farming to African Americans. It has been called the highest farm in the state, \"the highest arable spot of land in the State, if, indeed, soil so hard and sterile can be called arable.\"","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/House_at_John_Brown%27s_Farm.jpg/330px-House_at_John_Brown%27s_Farm.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":75,"lat":44.252,"lon":-73.9714},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}