This Saturday, walking tours will begin of Gettysburg’s most famous authentic Underground Railroad site. First recognized by the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom (UGRR NTF) in 2011, the McAllister’s Mill site, just south of town, is part of a nationwide collection of sites that have a verifiable association to the activities of the Underground Railroad. A one-hour walking tour will take you in the very footsteps of many of the freedom seekers who came from Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC as they made their way north to escape slavery.
Tours are given every Saturday at 11 AM from May through August, rain or shine. Hundreds of visitors have taken advantage of this unique opportunity to visit a rarely seen, privately owned part of the battlefield. The walk to the McAllister’s Mill Site from the historical marker at the parking lot is a somewhat strenuous, approximately one-half mile round trip mostly in the woods, and it is led by a corps of experienced and knowledgeable Historic Gettysburg-Adams County (HGAC) tour guides.
The tours leave from the historical marker at the south end of the former Mulligan MacDuffer Adventure Golf parking lot at 1360 Baltimore Pike in Gettysburg, PA. The parking lot is at the intersection of the Baltimore Pike and the McAllister Mill Road just ½ mile south of the traffic light at the entrance to the NPS Visitor Center. It is not necessary to make a reservation for the tour. Just show up for the tour and enjoy an informative, enlightening walk in the woods. Suggested donations for the tour are $5 for students and $10 for adults.
Everyone who comes on the tour will receive an NPS Underground Railroad brochure in addition to a souvenir brochure for the McAllister’s Mill Site that was created exclusively for HGAC and that is generously illustrated with a map, photographs and the art of historical artist Bradley Schmehl. Junior Ranger booklets and badges (as shown in the photo) are available for students who participate in the tour.
The McAllister’s Mill Underground Railroad site, now a ruin with foundations and waterways still visible, was most probably one of the first stops made in Adams County by people seeking freedom on their flight north from slavery in the South. About two miles south of Gettysburg, PA and six miles north of the Mason-Dixon Line, McAllister’s Mill provided shelter to hundreds of freedom seekers during the years leading up to the Civil War. After receiving assistance at the late 18th century grist mill, the freedom seekers were guided north through Gettysburg into Upper Adams County to the homes of free African Americans and Quaker Abolitionists, forming critical links in one of the earliest regional networks of the Underground Railroad in the nation. Today, the property includes remnants of the mill building and related mill structures, all set amid large boulders that line Rock Creek.
On July 4, 1836, McAllister’s Mill was the site of an early and significant gathering of Abolitionists in Pennsylvania. Chaired by mill owner and farmer James McAllister, Jr., the group agreed to publish bold anti-slavery principles, which were reportedly ghostwritten by Gettysburg attorney and later U.S. Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. This meeting led to the formation of the Adams County Anti-Slavery Society.
Curt Musselman, the McAllister’s Mill Underground Railroad Tour Coordinator for HGAC, wants everyone to know that the donations made to HGAC for these tours will support HGAC’s efforts to recognize more Underground Railorad related sites within Adams County and to provide educational materials and programs about this important part of American history. The McAllister’s Mill site is privately owned and is not open to the public. However, persons interested in the story of the Underground Railroad at the site will be able to join these tours. For more information about the weekly tours, or to make special arrangements, please call McAllister’s Mill UGRR Tours at 717-659-8827. For more information on the Network to Freedom, please consult the NPS website at www.nps.gov/history/ugrr/.