Parson's Creek: Keene Family Escape Route
Parson's Creek: Keene Family Escape Route is a historic site in Madison, Maryland, 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 4 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The site is open to visitors.
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Is Parson's Creek: Keene Family Escape Route 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
Parson's Creek is the dug route — the seven-mile canal that the enslaved cut by hand, the 1832 Keene family escape down its length. The Stewart canal was the infrastructure — the twenty years of digging, the timber that floated to the ships. The family was the whole — Joe and Nelley with their eight children, the April flight that took them all.
The network was the mariners — the Black boatmen who carried the word, the secret communication that Tubman learned. The creek is the marker — the Network to Freedom designation, the water that was the road out. Parson's Creek is the canal's freedom — the ditch that was dug for timber, the family who used it for liberty.
The file keeps Parson's Creek: the hand-dug canal, the 1832 Keene escape, and the mariners' network.
Parson's Creek is the archive's Dorchester file — the canal that was the escape route.
Why this file matters
Parson's Creek is the archive's Dorchester file — the family escape down the canal.
A creek keeps its ditch — the file's suggestion being that Parson's hold is the canal: the twenty years of enslaved digging, the ten who floated out, and the waterway that was the route.
Two accounts on file
NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.
The creek—where the Keene family paddled to freedom.
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 27MD07, source row 485. 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 4; 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. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 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.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceParson’s Creek: Keene Family Escape Route 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. 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' documents the entry. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceThe Keene escape is documented. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on. The report keeps its place in the record.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceParson's Creek: Keene Family Escape Route is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. Parson's Creek: Keene Family Escape Route'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. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.
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 27MD07, source row 485. 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.