The city of Lancaster wasn't the only location that earned its place in African-American history. Columbia, situated on the Susquehanna River across from York and near the Maryland border, was ideally located as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Its industrious and burgeoning free Black population also made the town an excellent place for escaping slaves to blend in with the community. Prominent Black businessmen like William Whipper and Stephen Smith and white abolitionists like William Wright provided rest and transportation along the pathway to freedom. In fact, William Wright donated a tract of land in Columbia to its African-American residents. The area, known as Tow Hill, became a center of Underground Railroad activity.

For more information, contact the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau:

• Phone : 1-800-PA-DUTCH
• Email : mthomas@padutchcountry.com
• www.padutchcountry.com

Round out your trip with a visit to Harrisburg.

Related destinations:

• First National Bank Museum
  170 Locust Street
  Columbia, PA
  Phone: 717-684-8864
  Open Wed – Fri, 10 am-5pm; Sat and Sun, 12 noon-5 pm
  
  
  
  This Heritage site, built in 1814, retains the original teller's cage and bank vault from the 19th century and is the only known bank still preserved in its original setting in the United States. William Whipper and Steven Smith, both successful African-American businessmen, kept accounts at the First National Bank. Funds from these accounts assisted Africans along the Underground Railroad.

• Old Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge
  This bridge, once the main passageway between Columbia (known as the Gateway to the West) and Wrightsville, was burned on June 28, 1863, when Columbia residents and Union soldiers fleeing the Confederacy set the bridge ablaze to prevent the Confederate advance toward Philadelphia. Prior to that, railcars owned by William Whipper and Steven Smith crossed the Susquehanna River via the bridge with hidden fugitive slaves.

• Zion Hill Cemetery
  This cemetery is the final resting place of many soldiers who fought with the Black Company from Columbia during the Civil War. This company fought against Confederate troops advancing along the Wrightsville-Columbia Bridge. Among those buried at Zion Hill is Robert Loney, a Civil War soldier and conductor on the Underground Railroad whose own family was among the first group of slaves freed in the early 1800s.