Lancaster County's Underground Railroad heritage celebrated with programs, new markers

Columbia Borough officials are working to preserve the Underground Railroad history on the Susquehanna River waterfront.

African-Americans seeking freedom, and aided by Underground Railroad volunteers, came to Columbia across the Susquehanna at the site of an old wooden bridge there.

"That's so important in the Underground Railroad story," says Randolph Harris of the African American Historical Society of South Central Pennsylvania. Nearby are ruins of locks and a dam that were part of a canal system that was also part of the Underground Railroad, he says.

"The old piers and the old canal ruins are part of a new (riverfront redevelopment) plan that's being worked on by Columbia Borough," Harris says. "They will do whatever they can to preserve those ruins. I'm confident they're going to do a nice job of telling the story ... to the educational and economic benefit of the area."

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